Russia announces having shot down 596 Ukrainian drones, four deaths recorded

Russia announced on Wednesday that it had shot down 596 Ukrainian drones overnight over around ten of its regions and annexed Crimea, attacks which left four dead, including a child, according to the authorities. This announcement comes the day after a new telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Donald Trump on ways to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.

The attacks notably targeted Novorossiysk, a port city on the Black Sea, in the Krasnodar region (south), where “four people, including a child, were killed” and 29 others injured, said the regional governor, Veniamine Kondratiev.

“Our military repelled a massive enemy drone attack against the region overnight, Novorossiysk being the most affected city,” he said in a statement on Telegram. Russia - which launched a large-scale offensive against its Ukrainian neighbor in February 2022 - and Ukraine have been engaged for months in a clear escalation of long-range strikes, which target energy, logistics and port sites, as well as ships in the Black Sea.

Long stalled, diplomatic efforts pushed by the United States to put an end to this bloody conflict were relaunched last weekend with a visit by Washington emissaries Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow and kyiv. After these trips, a new telephone conversation took place on Tuesday between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump who discussed the conflict in Ukraine with “extreme frankness”, according to the Kremlin.