Russia’s Defence Ministry reports shooting down a drone over Crimea

Russian air defence facilities have destroyed 15 Ukrainian UAVs over the past day, Russia’s Ministry of Defence reports.

According to the ministry’s statement, the drones were shot down in the Luhansk and Donetsk “people’s republics”, Russia’s Belgorod region, Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, and Kharkiv regions, as well as in the town of Dzhankoi, located in the north of Crimea.

In the city of Belgorod, the air defence system was activated in the early hours of 1 January; four MLRS shells were shot down, local authorities previously reported. According to them, no one was hurt, however, several private buildings in the Belgorod region were damaged.

Air defence was also activated in Ukraine, with an air raid alert being declared in all regions of the country several times over the past day. Russia’s Ministry of Defence reports that Russian troops hit “defence industrial facilities of Ukraine involved in producing assault unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)” on 31 December.

“The goal of the attack has been reached. Kiev regime’s plans to commit terrorist attacks against the Russian Federation in the nearest future have been frustrated,” the ministry says in a statement.

Explosions were reported in several Ukrainian cities, the majority of the reports coming from Kyiv and the Kyiv region. On New Year’s night, the air defence system activated in Kyiv and the Kyiv region shot down 32 “air targets”, the Kyiv city state administration previously said. It was later clarified by the Ukrainian Air Force Command that 45 Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 drones had been shot down in all of Ukraine.

Following the strikes on the country, 50 people were wounded, while two people — an elderly man from Kyiv and a 22-year-old woman from the city of Khmelnytskyi — were killed. One person was killed in shelling in Kherson carried out on New Year’s night.

Furthermore, due to shelling, the city of Kherson and nearby villages were left without power seeing as a missile had hit a critical infrastructure facility, local authorities said earlier.