Russian Army Downs Nearly 700 Ukrainian Drones Overnight

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday morning that it downed 660 Ukrainian drones across the country and annexed Crimea, marking one of the largest overnight drone attacks since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at least 47 drones on a trajectory toward the capital had been downed since around 2:30 a.m. local time. He did not report any casualties or damage, noting only that emergency services were working at the sites of fallen debris.

In the Tula region, around 180 kilometers (112 miles) south of Moscow, Governor Dmitry Milyayev said a woman was wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack. He said an “industrial facility” was struck in the town of Novomoskovsk.

Unverified reports identified the attacked facility as the Azot chemical plant. Reports also said the Novomoskovsk thermal power plant was on fire, which was detected by NASA satellite imagery and led to power outages.

Earlier, on Thursday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had approved a 40-day “influence operation” put forward by Ukraine’s SBU security service to “compel” Russia to end the war.

Ukraine began ratcheting up its attacks against Russian oil refineries and fuel supply lines in Crimea this spring. Drone strikes have halted or scaled back production at facilities that account for large shares of Russia’s gasoline output, leading to a growing number of fuel rationing measures.

Military experts and analysts have told The Moscow Times that the intensified campaign uses mass drone deployments to overwhelm and expose gaps in Russia’s air defenses.

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