Russia Says Air Defenses Intercepted 1,110 Ukrainian Drones Overnight

Russian air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 1,110 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones overnight, according to a report from Russia's state news agency TASS, citing the Russian Defense Ministry.

The ministry said the drones were shot down over a wide swath of Russian territory, including the Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Tambov, Voronezh, Lipetsk, Smolensk, Oryol, Rostov, Volgograd and Saratov regions, as well as the Samara and Krasnodar regions, the Moscow Region, and Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Additional drones were reportedly intercepted over the Black Sea.

TASS did not provide further details on the timing, methods used to verify the count, or the extent of any damage caused by the drones prior to interception.

The report could not be independently verified. Ukrainian officials have not publicly commented on the claim as of this writing.

Russian and Ukrainian forces have regularly exchanged drone and missile strikes deep into each other's territory as the war, now in its third year, continues, with both sides periodically issuing figures on intercepted munitions that are difficult to independently confirm.