• 

The Russian Defense Ministry said early Thursday that the Ukrainian armed forces (AFU) attacked Russia's Sergei Kotov patrol vessel of the Black Sea Fleet using five drone boats overnight, but all drone boats were destroyed.

"On 14 September at around 05:00 [Moscow time, 02:00 GMT], the AFU attempted to attack the Black Sea Fleet patrol ship Sergei Kotov in the waters of the Black Sea by five uncrewed boats. In the course of repelling the attack, five enemy uncrewed boats were destroyed by fire from the ship's standard weapons," the Ministry said in a statement.

In a related context, the Ministry later added in a statement that the Russian air defense systems shot down 11 Ukrainian aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over Crimea overnight.

"On September 14, around 5:30 a.m. Moscow time [02:30 GMT], an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out terrorist attacks against facilities in the territory of the Russian Federation using aircraft-type UAVs was thwarted. Air defense systems on duty destroyed 11 unmanned aerial vehicles over the territory of the Republic of Crimea," the statement read.

Russia said it had destroyed several Ukrainian drones in its border regions of Bryansk and Belgorod during the night from Wednesday to Thursday. No casualties have been reported so far.

The Russian Defense Ministry said six drones had been shot down in four separate locations over the Bryansk region, which is roughly equidistant between Kiev and Moscow.

"Air defense systems on duty destroyed unmanned aerial vehicles over the territory of Bryansk region," it said on Telegram.

Bryansk governor Alexander Bogomaz said there had been no damage or casualties, and "operational and emergency services are working on the scene."

Another drone was destroyed further south over the Belgorod region on Wednesday evening, the Defense Ministry added, saying the attempted attack had been thwarted.

Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said it had been shot down over Tulyanka village, with no casualties or damage reported so far.

This comes shortly after Ukraine launched on Wednesday a total of 10 cruise missiles toward the Sevastopol shipyard, resulting in damage to two ships that were undergoing repairs, as per the Russian Defense Ministry. The attack also reportedly involved three unmanned boats.

Concurrently, Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev confirmed that a fire erupted, and 24 individuals sustained injuries following a Ukrainian missile strike on the shipyard in Crimea.

Meanwhile, Yan Gagin, advisor to the acting head of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), said in an interview for Sputnik that since the start of Russia's special military operation in February 2022, Ukraine lost about 500,000 of its troops, as per intelligence and analysis of open sources.

"If we talk about the losses of the Ukrainian armed forces... we can get information about these losses from the intelligence data we receive from our sources in Ukraine, and there are also public sources. For example, just a week ago... a Ukrainian mobile operator (MTS-Ukraine) posted a video online that about 400,000 recipients will never pick up the phone again," Gagin said.

He also mentioned NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's recent statement.

"There was another moment when NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, at a meeting of the European Parliament, when asked if more than 500,000 military personnel died in Ukraine, did not answer anything, but said that they had not promised it would be easy. That is, he confirmed this figure with his silence. Therefore, the figure of about half a million Ukrainians who died during this conflict as military personnel, I think that it is close to the truth," Gagin said.

Read more: US eyes long-range missiles with cluster bombs for Ukraine: Reuters