Russia Shoots Down Over 20 Drones Over Crimea

Russian forces shot down 20 unmanned Ukrainian drones launched over the occupied Crimean peninsula on Saturday, the Russian defence ministry said.

Fourteen drones were destroyed by air defence systems and six others were suppressed by electronic warfare, the defence ministry said on Telegram. There were no casualties and no damage as a result of the attempted attack, the ministry added.

The target of the reported attacks remained unclear for now. Sergei Kryuchkov, an aide to the governor of Crimea, said earlier that the air defence systems were used to repel air strikes in various parts of the peninsula.

Crimean transport authorities said on their Telegram channel that traffic on the Crimean Bridge, which links the Black Sea peninsula with the Russian region of Krasnodar, was suspended for about two hours during the night.

The Crimean peninsula was illegally occupied by Russia in 2014 and was used as a launchpad for Russia’s full-scale invasion last year.