Dec 31 (Reuters) – Ukraine launched a series of drone attacks on Tuesday targeting Moscow, parts of western Russia and annexed Crimea, injuring one person near the Russian capital, Russian authorities said.
Russia’s air defence units destroyed a total of 27 Ukrainian drones in the three-hour period starting at 8 p.m. (1700 GMT), including three over the Moscow region, the Russian defence ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.
Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region, said on Telegram that 21 Ukrainian drones were downed during the day over the region. One civilian person was injured as a result of the attack.
The reported attacks came a day after Russia accused Ukraine, without providing evidence, of trying to attack President Vladimir Putin’s residence.
Kyiv dismissed the allegations as baseless and aimed at derailing peace talks in the war that Russia launched against Ukraine nearly four years ago.
There were no immediate reports of damage from the strikes. Russia rarely discloses the full extent of damage from Ukrainian attacks unless civilians or civilian infrastructure are affected.
Separately, a power outage hit a town outside Moscow after a technical fault at a regional power facility, RIA reported, citing power authorities.
The SHOT Telegram news channel, which has sources among Russia’s security services, said about 100,000 residents were affected.
There was no immediate evidence the outage was linked to Ukraine.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Stephen Coates)
