Russia downed 605 Ukrainian drones overnight: defence ministry

MOSCOW: Russia shot down 605 Ukrainian drones during the night over its territory and the annexed Crimean Peninsula, the defence ministry said Thursday.

“During the night… air defence systems intercepted and destroyed 605 Ukrainian aerial drones,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry flagged attacks in the Tver region about 180 kilometres (110 miles) northwest of Moscow, where local authorities reported a logistics centre belonging to the e-commerce giant Wildberries had been damaged.

Regional governor Vitaly Korolyov said air defence systems had repelled the Ukrainian attack.

“As a result of the fall of debris from one of the drones, the facade of the Wildberries logistics centre was slightly damaged,” he wrote on Telegram, adding that no one had been wounded.

Ukraine has repeatedly struck sites belonging to Wildberries — a popular online commerce platform often described as Russia’s Amazon — across the country since mid-July.

Mikhail Yevrayev, governor of the Yaroslavl region around 250 kilometres north of Moscow, reported the “most massive attack” against his region, saying 92 drones had been shot down.

Debris caused fires in houses and damaged cars, he added on Telegram.

More than four years after the start of Russia’s large-scale offensive against Ukraine, diplomacy is at a standstill and the two countries are ramping up long-range strikes, causing a growing number of civilian casualties.