On Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of drone strikes, targeting the infrastructure of Russia, including around the capital after a fire broke out at an oil depot and authorities suddenly shut the airspace above the country’s second-largest city.
Moscow region Governor Andrey Vorobyov claimed a Ukrainian drone had crashed near the village of Gubastovo southeast of the capital. The drone was aimed at what he called “civilian infrastructure,” later verified to be a gas structure managed by state-owned company Gazprom.
The structure remained undamaged, state media reported, mentioning the region’s Energy Ministry. State media later posted a photo of what it said was the crashed device, which appeared to resemble a Ukrainian-made UJ-22 attack drone.
The UJ-22 is rather small and versatile, the drone can fly through bad climates and travel up to 500 miles. But it’s indistinct where or when the photo of the crashed drone was taken.
The accident was reportedly one of few tried strikes, with state media reporting a drone was shot down near the Belarus border and the defense ministry claiming two more strikes were thwarted through the use of drone-jamming technology in the Krasnodar and Adygea regions.
Both drones lost control and deviated from their flight path. One UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) fell in a field, and another UAV, deviating from the trajectory, did not harm the attacked civilian infrastructure facility.”
the defense ministry said in a statement
Only one drone seemed to have escaped Russian defenses, with footage posted on social media overnight and geolocated by CNN indicating a fire at energy firm Rosneft’s oil depot in Tuapse, on Krasnodar’s Black Sea coast.
It’s undefined if the structure was the plotted target, but Ukraine has once targeted oil depots within Russian-controlled territory. CNN nor Ukraine did not directly comment on the incident. Ukraine has earlier declined to comment on attacks inside Russia.
According to state media, after the attacks, Russia shut its airspace in St. Petersburg Tuesday within a 200-kilometer radius, shortly banning incoming flights.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had been briefed about the closures – but Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov had declined to discuss whether it was related to the “incidents in St. Petersburg and Tuapse,” state media reported.
