Russia’s Defense Ministry said 596 Ukrainian-made fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles were detected over various regions of the country and the Black Sea between 8 p.m. on September 8 and 8 a.m. on September 9. The ministry said air defense forces intercepted and destroyed the drones.
The drones were spotted over the Belgorod, Bryansk, Kaluga, Kursk, Oryol, Orenburg, Rostov, Samara, Tula and Ulyanovsk regions, Krasnodar Krai, Crimea and the Black Sea, the ministry said.
Four people killed in Novorossiysk
Krasnodar Krai Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said Novorossiysk was the main target of the attack. Kondratyev said four people, including a child, were killed in the city and 29 others were injured.
The governor said three of the injured were in serious condition and that all those wounded received medical assistance. Three detached houses and five apartment buildings, as well as an Orthodox church and a kindergarten, were damaged in Novorossiysk.
The regional operations center said drone fragments fell near a house and on the grounds of a business. The falling fragments caused a fire in the area.
Prolonged, intense drone activity in Gelendzhik
Intense drone activity continued throughout the night in Gelendzhik, in Krasnodar Krai. The city’s mayor, Aleksey Bogodistov, said air defense units and mobile fire teams detected and neutralized numerous drones over the city.
Bogodistov said the attack was the most serious the city had experienced in terms of its intensity and duration, and claimed that the intended objectives had not been achieved.