The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that its forces intercepted 502 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions as the Ukrainian military continues launching massive US-backed drone swarms into the country.
Much of Ukraine’s attack focused on Novorossiysk, a Russian Black Sea port city in the Krasnodar Oblast, where local Russian officials said at least three people, including an eight-year-old boy, were killed. Russia’s TASS news agency reported that the mother of the eight-year-old and his six-year-old brother were also seriously injured.
Ukrainian officials said that missiles were used in the strikes on Novorossiysk, which, according to Reuters, also hit Russian warships and a naval base and pounded grain ports, putting at least two grain terminals out of service. Andrei Kravchenko, the mayor of Novorossiysk, declared an emergency and said the city’s water supply had been cut off.
“Our Palianytsia jet-powered drones, Neptune missiles, and unmanned naval systems successfully struck the designated targets,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X describing the strikes on Novorossiysk.
Russian strikes also hit Ukraine on Wednesday, with the Ukrainian air force reporting that Russia launched 138 drones into the country and fired an unspecified number of missiles. According to The Associated Press, Russian drone attacks on Kherson killed at least two civilians and damaged a shopping mall.
The Ukrainian air force said there were at least 16 areas where damage was recorded due to the missile strikes. Russia has taken advantage of Ukraine’s depleted air defense, and in some recent attacks, Ukraine’s military has failed to intercept a single missile. Despite Ukraine’s daily long-range drone attacks, Russian forces maintain momentum on the front lines, where they are slowly making territorial gains.
