Russia’s defense ministry says its forces have intercepted what it described as a “massive” drone attack on Crimea by Ukrainian troops and that there were no casualties, according to TASS news agency.
TASS quoted the Ministry of Defence spokesperson, Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov, who said: “An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a massive attack by drones on the objects of the Crimean peninsula was prevented.
“Six Ukrainian attack drones were shot down by air defense systems. Another four Ukrainian drones were disabled by electronic warfare. There were no casualties and destruction on the ground,” he said.
Moscow rejects Kyiv denials on other drone attacks
The Kremlin said that it did not believe a claim made by Mykhailo Podolyak, a presidential adviser for Ukraine, that his country does not target Russian territory.
Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for the Kremlin, was speaking a day after Russian officials accused Ukraine of carrying out numerous drone attacks within Russian territory. This was only the most recent of several drone attacks for which Ukraine has not publicly taken credit.
Peskov responded, “We don’t believe him,” when questioned about Podolyak’s denial of Ukrainian drone attacks.
Moscow will not change stance on New START treaty
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov says Moscow cannot review its suspension of the New START nuclear arms treaty with the United States until the US changes its policy on Ukraine, Interfax reported.
Last week, Putin announced that Russia was suspending its participation in the deal, accusing Washington of trying to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia in Ukraine.
Ryabkov said the two countries continued to discuss issues around the treaty via “closed channels”, Interfax said.
