This handout photograph taken and released on Sept. 13 by the press center of the Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine shows what is alleged to be a fragment of a Russian drone following Russian drone attacks in Odesa region.Supplied/AFP/Getty Images
Ukraine struck Russian air defence systems near the town of Yevpatoriya in the west of occupied Crimea in a long-range overnight attack on Thursday, the Ukrainian military said.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said in a statement that its air defences had shot down 11 drones overnight over the peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014. It made no mention of any damage.
A video circulated on social media showed powerful explosions and a plume of smoke rising in the night sky illuminated by a blaze. Reuters could not immediately verify the video.
A Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters the attack destroyed a “Triumf” air defence system in a joint operation of the Security Service of Ukraine and navy.
First, the source said, drones blinded the air defence system by attacking its radar and antenna, before two Ukrainian-made Neptune cruise missiles were fired at the system’s launchers. Ukraine has modified the Neptune anti-ship missile to attack ground targets, military analysts say.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the account.
The attack comes a day after Ukraine launched missiles at the Crimean port of Sevastopol, home to the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet, in an attack that signalled Ukraine’s growing missile capabilities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the Thursday attack in his nightly video message.
“A special mention should be made to the entire personnel of the Security Service of Ukraine as well as our naval forces,” Mr. Zelensky said, adding “I thank you for today’s triumph” – a reference to the name of the Russian system.
Ukraine also said on Thursday it downed 17 out of 22 Russian drones attacking its territory overnight, and that a child was killed in the country’s south by artillery shelling.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General’s office said a six-year-old boy was killed and four other people, including his 13-year-old brother, were wounded by Russian shelling in the village of Novodmytrivka in the Kherson region.
“Enemy shells hit a private house and its territory,” it said in a statement on Telegram.
Separately, Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down drones in several regions in Ukraine’s south and north.
“On the night of September 14, 2023, from 9 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., the Russian invaders attacked Ukraine with several groups of Shahed-136/131 type [drones] from three directions,” it said in a post on Telegram.
Dnipropetrovsk region Governor Serhiy Lysak said three drones were over the region, damaging several buildings. Another part of the region was hit overnight by artillery and rockets, he said.
Having initially sought to pummel Ukrainian targets with missiles, Russia has this year increasingly turned to the Shahed, a cheap Iranian kamikaze drone which is more expendable and can confuse air defences with its smaller size and low speed.