On Friday, Russia claimed that it had shot down 11 Ukrainian drones overnight, though one UAV dropped explosives on a substation, cutting the local power supply, a regional governor said.
Through the messaging platform Telegram, the defense ministry of Russia said, “Eleven Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed by air defense systems on duty, one of them over the territory of Kaluga region and 10 over Kursk region.”
Roman Starovoyt, Kursk governor, said that the region bordering eastern Ukraine was “massively attacked” by Ukrainian UAVs.
He said on Telegram that less than 25 kilometers, in Belaya village, (16 miles) from the border, “a Ukrainian drone dropped two explosive devices on a substation.”
He added, “One of the transformers caught fire. Five settlements and a hospital were cut off from power supply. Fire crews rushed to the scene. Power will be restored as soon as it is safe to do so.”
The governor cautioned locals that “due to the threat of self-destruction of downed UAVs, it is prohibited to touch their waste, approach them or take pictures”.
Russia earlier said it had destroyed two Ukrainian drones on Thursday evening over the neighboring Belgorod region.
The first drone was “thwarted” at about 5:00 pm (1400 GMT), while a second was carried down about four hours later, the defense ministry said.
The Belgorod and Kursk regions, south of Moscow, border eastern Ukraine. Kaluga region is nearer to Russia’s capital.
