Russia's defence ministry on Friday said that Ukraine fired a missile towards Moscow. It also said that its air defences destroyed 42 drones Ukraine launched over Crimea. Crimea was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
While Crimea has come under attack by Kyiv since Russia invaded in 2022, the attacks have been more intense in recent weeks. On August 24, when Ukraine celebrated its Independence Day, Ukrainian troops briefly landed on the peninsular and hoisted their national flag.
Reportedly, Ukraine fired a missile over the Kaluga region, which borders the Moscow region. According to Russia's defence ministry, nine of the Ukrainian drones were shot down, while 33 of them were suppressed using electronic warfare and crashed before they reached the targets.
According to Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, several drones were destroyed over the Khersones promontory. The missile fired by Ukraine was destroyed too.
Ukraine hasn't commented on reports of the attacks yet. No casualties or damages were reported from the attack. Russian airports near Moscow suspended flights for a few hours, Reuters reported.
President Volodymyr Zelensky told an international conference that Kyiv would “de-occupy” Crimea. However, Russia shows no sign of leaving Crimea. Ukraine will soon be in possession of F-16 jets that it had been pressuring its Western allies for. The US will start training Ukrainian pilots to fly U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, beginning at an Air National Guard base in October, the Pentagon said Thursday, AP reported.