Kyiv launched over two dozen drones on the Russian region of Kursk in several waves of attacks that started Saturday night and damaged an oil depot, Russian officials said earlier today. Nineteen drones launched from Ukraine were destroyed by Russia’s air defence systems overnight, Russia’s defence ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.
That follows 19 drones that Andrei Smirnov, Kursk’s governor, said defence systems destroyed over the region on Sunday. Neither Smirnov nor the Russian defence ministry said how many drones in total Ukraine had launched.
Firefighters were still trying to put out an oil depot fire in the region, sparked by Ukraine’s drone attack on Saturday night, Smirnov said. He said the attacks caused minor damage to several residential buildings. Russian officials rarely disclose the full extent of damage inflicted by Ukrainian attacks.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that in total, its air defence systems destroyed 39 drones that Ukraine launched targeting Russia’s territory overnight. Nine drones were destroyed over the Belgorod region, five over the Bryansk region, and three each over the Voronezh and Leningrad regions, all in Russia’s west.
The ministry did not list the Oryol region, where according to the governor of the southwestern Russian region, a power plant was damaged in a Ukraine-launched drone attack overnight.
Ukraine has been systematically targeting Russian transport, energy and military infrastructure to disrupt the Kremlin’s economy and its ability to fund the war, which Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on its smaller neighbour in 2022. Kyiv also says the drone attacks are in response to Russia’s continued bombing of Ukraine.
Drones have been extensively used by both the Russians and the Ukrainian forces in the ongoing conflict. Infact, initially when the Russian mechanized formations had headed for Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, drones were brought into service by the Ukrainians too stall the tanks. The strategy had paid huge dividends.
Ukraine has been systematically targeting Russian energy infrastructure to try to disrupt Russia’s economy and its ability to fund its military effort. Russian efforts at targeting Ukrainian infrastructure has been equally focused. Ukraine has a substantial dearth of power generation capability, as a result.
(With inputs from Reuters)
