Russian officials said Ukraine launched a large night drone attack on Russia, disrupted flights in the southern part of the country in early Wednesday and forced the evacuation of residents from dozens of apartments in the Rostov region.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that its air defense units destroyed 158 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 29 in the Southern Rostov region.
There was no immediate report of injuries, but 48 apartment residents in a building in Rostov city Aksya were extracted due to the danger of a fallen drone, the acting governor of the region said on the telegram.
The Ministry of Defense said 69 drones were destroyed in the Krasnodar region in the northern Caucasus of Russia and 15 on North Oseshia -Alenia in the same region of southern Russia.
The ministry only reports the number of destroyed drones, not how many were launched.
Russia’s Civil Aviation Watchdog Rosaviatsia said several airports in the south of Russia were closed on Wednesday to ensure air security.
No immediate comments were made from Ukraine about the attacks. Both sides say the purpose of their attacks is to destroy the infrastructure which is important for overall war efforts.
Kiev also says that its attacks are in response to Moscow’s continuous bombing, as Russia started with its full -scale invasion of the country over three years ago.
US President Donald Trump, who took over in January, ended the war in 24 hours, demanded the broker to end the struggle. At the end of March, the US said it had agreed with two ceasefire of Russia and Ukraine, including one that would ban each other’s energy infrastructure attacks.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Christopher Kushing and Kate Meberry)