All the latest developments from Ukraine and Russia.
Moscow claimed early on Friday to have shot down 42 Ukrainian drones in Crimea, describing a massive attack on the illegally annexed peninsula.
It comes a day after Kyiv said it carried out a rare commando operation to land troops on Crimean soil, plant a Ukrainian flag, and inflict casualties on the Russian occupying forces.
“Nine drones were destroyed following the impact of fire over the territory of the Republic of Crimea. 33 drones were neutralised by electronic warfare means and crashed without hitting (their) target,” the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram.
The ministry did not provide any information about possible damage or casualties following the destruction of the devices.
The governor of Sevastopol had earlier reported that several aircraft had been shot down offshore “in the area of Cape Chersonese” in the south-west of the peninsula, some 10km from Sevastopol, the home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
“No damage to civilian infrastructure” was reported by the emergency services, the governor said.
Since the start of the offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, Crimea has been a regular target of air and naval drone attacks.
At the end of July, Moscow shot down 25 of these drones aimed at the peninsula without causing any casualties. Twenty-eight others suffered the same fate in mid-July.
Ukrainian pilots in training
Ukrainian pilots will start training to fly F-16 jets in the US from September, according to Washington.
During a telephone call, US President Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy also spoke of “ensuring rapid approval for other nations to transfer their F-16s to Ukraine upon completion of training”, the White House said in a statement.
Earlier on Thursday, Norway announced that it would become the third country to provide Ukraine with examples of this American-designed aircraft, following Denmark and the Netherlands.
Source: Euro News
