Moscow,A Ukrainian drone shot down by Russian air defenses
Moscow announced that Russian air defenses shot down a Ukrainian drone, which came down on Sunday in Kireyevsk, about 400km from the Ukrainian border. According to Russian state media, an explosion occurred after it was brought down, injuring at least three people.
Previous claims that Ukraine attacked Russian civilian targets with explosive drones have been dismissed, and Ukraine has not yet responded to the recent incident where a Ukrainian drone was shot down by Russian air defenses. Moscow has deployed hundreds of drones against Ukraine.
According to Russian law enforcement authorities, a drone packed with explosives, believed to be a Strizh-type (Tu-141) UAV, was shot down at 3:20 pm local time (1:20 pm BST), causing a significant crater in the center of Kireyevsk. The incident reportedly resulted in damages to several apartments in the town located in the Tula region, 220 km south of Moscow, but fortunately, no serious injuries have been reported so far.
The Russian Defense Ministry released a statement on its Telegram channel alleging that Ukraine tried to carry out an attack. The ministry stated that the deployment of Russian air defense systems, including S-300 and Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as Pole-21 electronic warfare systems in the Tula region, provided reliable protection against such attempts.
“In particular, the Pole-21 electronic warfare complex handled the Ukrainian strike drone, which resulted in its navigation system being disabled.”
In December, Moscow said three Russian air force personnel died after being wounded by falling debris from a drone that was shot down at the Engels airbase in the south of the country.
The Engels air base has been repeatedly used by Russia to carry out missile strikes on various targets in Ukraine since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion last February.