“Some 27 drones were shot down. The Ust-Luga port was damaged. There were no casualties,” Drozdenko wrote on his Max channel, and added that Russian air defenses repelled the attack. The Defense Ministry reported earlier that an estimated 203 Ukrainian attack drones were intercepted by air defense systems in the regions of Belgorod, Bryansk, Kaluga, Krasnodar, Kursk, Leningrad, Moscow, Novgorod, Oryol, Penza, Pskov, Rostov, Samara, Saratov, Smolensk, Tula, Tver, Volgograd, and Voronezh, the Crimean Peninsula and over the Black Sea in the last day.

The national air transport agency, Rosaviatsia, reported that temporary restrictions have been imposed at the airports of Bhumulma, Kaluga, Pskov, Samara, and Pulkovo in St. Petersburg this day to ensure passenger safety.

Russia has been conducting a special military operation in Ukraine since February 24, 2022, to protect the Donbas population from “the Kiev regime’s genocide,” according to President Vladimir Putin.

It also aims to counter national security risks posed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)’s eastward expansion.

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