Russia says it downed 148 Ukrainian drones in three hours

Russia’s military said early on Monday that air defence units had downed 148 Ukrainian drones over a three-hour ​period and officials said emergency crews were restoring power ‌to nearly half a million households in outages linked to air attacks.

On Sunday evening, a drone killed a civil defence volunteer in Russia’s ​border region of Belgorod, a frequent target of the ​Ukrainian military, and drones also hit an apartment ⁠building in Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

A Russian Defence ​Ministry statement said air defence units had intercepted 148 drones, ​mostly in central and southern areas of the country, between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. (1700-2000 GMT) on Sundasy.

The mayor of the port of Novorossiysk, ​Andrei Kravchenko, said drone debris had struck a high-rise ​apartment building. There was no word on casualties.

In Crimea, a region seized ‌and ⁠annexed by Russia in 2014, 10 years before the full-scale invasion, the governor of the port of Sevastopol said his city had come under four drone attacks throughout the day. Seven ​drones were ​downed in the ⁠latest wave.

In Russian-occupied Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, the head of the Russia-installed government, Andrei ​Chertkov, said repair crews had restored power to ​two ⁠major cities, Donetsk and Makiivka, after Ukrainian attacks on energy infrastructure.

Chertkov had earlier said that nearly half a million households had ⁠been ​left without electricity. Work was continuing ​in areas still without power.
Crews were also restoring power after mass outages in ​Russian-held areas of Zaporizhzhia region.