Russia says downed Ukrainian drones over four regions

Russia announced on Sunday that it has shot down four Ukrainian drones over four regions, including Moscow, as well as two Ukrainian missiles over the Azov Sea their route to Russia. Moscow said the drone attacks targeted border regions and areas close to Moscow, a day after Kyiv reported the largest drone attack on Ukraine since Moscow launched its offensive last February. “Air defence destroyed four Ukranian drones over the territory of the Bryansk, Smolensk and Tula regions,” Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement. Earlier on Sunday, Russia stated that some drones were shot down over the Moscow area. The Russian army also claimed to have shot down two Ukrainian missiles en route to Russia over the Azov Sea, which separates the two countries. “Russian air defence located and destroyed two Ukrainian missiles in the air over the water area of the Azov Sea,” Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air defence reported it shot down eight of nine drones over the nation on Sunday. Ukraine reported on Saturday that Moscow had launched 75 drones into the nation, the majority of which were directed at Kyiv. The incident occurred as Kyiv commemorated Holodomor, the Stalin-era famine that killed millions in Ukraine. Ukraine has been attacking Russian territory and occupied Crimea with drones for months, and this summer launched a counter-offensive to push back Russian forces. The attacks on Russia came as Ukraine marked a decade since the Maidan pro-EU upheaval, which strained relations between the countries. Russia grabbed Crimea and backed separatists in eastern Ukraine shortly after Ukrainians ousted a Moscow-sponsored regime in 2014. Russia continues to see the Maidan revolution as illegitimate and when it launched its full-scale offensive in February last year, it aimed to install a different government in Ukraine. “In Kyiv ten years ago there was a coup with the use of force, the legitimate authorities were overthrown,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Sunday.