MOSCOW: Russia said it repelled attacks by Ukrainian drones over several parts of Crimea, the outskirts of Moscow and two border regions on Sunday.

Crimea has been a target of Ukraine throughout Russia’s offensive, but attacks there have recently intensified as Kiev vows to retake the Black Sea peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

And since Ukraine launched its counteroffensive in early June, Russia has endured waves of drone attacks that have occasionally damaged buildings, including in the capital, Moscow.

Russian officials downplayed their importance.

“The drones were intercepted over the western, southwestern, northwestern and eastern parts of the Crimean peninsula; Istra and Domodedovo districts in the Moscow region, Belgorod and Voronezh regions,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram in an overview of Sunday’s attacks. The drones were “prevented”, he added.

Most of the attacks were early Sunday.

Late Sunday, three drones were destroyed over southwestern Crimea, as well as a single drone over the border region of Belgorod, the Defense Ministry said.

Telegram updates throughout the day put a total of 13 drones down, including nine over Crimea.

A Ukrainian drone damaged an oil warehouse in southwestern Russia

They did not say whether there were any casualties or damage in the attacks.

In Sunday’s review, the Russian ministry claimed that production workshops at a military vehicle repair factory in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv had been hit.

Buildings “where repairs and restoration of armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were taking place were hit by a missile attack,” he said.

Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov said earlier in his Sunday briefing that Russia “launched a missile attack on the city of Kharkiv” shortly after midnight, but maintained that a civilian business had been hit.

“The rockets hit the building of a civilian company. There was a fire,” he said on Telegram.