Russia accuses Ukraine of drone attacks on civilian infrastructure

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday accused Ukraine of drone attacks on objects of civilian infrastructure in several regions.

The ministry claimed that attempted attacks of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were thwarted in the southern Krasnodar and Caucasian Adygea regions.

In a separate statement, the governor of the Moscow region claimed that another drone was downed near the city of Kolomna, 101 kilometers (62 miles) off the capital Moscow.

"According to the incident with the fall of a UAV in the Kolomna city district: it happened near the village of Gubastovo, the target was probably a civilian infrastructure facility, it was not damaged," Andrey Vorobyov said on Telegram.

Vorobyov noted that there are no casualties, and the Federal Security Service and other competent authorities are dealing with the situation, adding that nothing threatens the safety of residents.

On Monday, the governor of the Bryansk region, Aleksandr Bogomaz, also reported that the military shot down a Ukrainian drone over the Surazhsky district, and the mayor of the city of Belgorod, Valentin Demidov, said on Telegram that a UAV flew into an apartment of a residential house through an open window.​​​​​​​

The Russian Defense Ministry said it held on Tuesday an exercise on interacting with civilian units to train joint actions in case of air attacks.

"During the training, the air defense forces on duty worked out the issues of detection, interception, and identification of the intended target of the violator, as well as interaction with emergency services and law enforcement agencies in the event of an emergency situation," the ministry said.

The drill took part in the western part of Russia, it engaged fighter jets from the on-duty air defense forces of the Western Military District, which trained interception and identification of the conditional target of the violator, it said.

In a separate statement, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency said airspace over the city of Saint Petersburg was closed for several hours earlier Tuesday, during which Pulkovo airport did not allow landing or take-off of the planes.

The authorities have not yet named the reason, but allegedly it may be connected to the Defense Ministry’s drill as Saint Petersburg is located on the territory of the Western Military District.