Moscow, March 12 (QNA) - The Russian Ministry of Defense announced Thursday that its air defense systems shot down 80 Ukrainian drones overnight over several regions of the country.

The ministry said in a statement that Russian air defenses destroyed drones over the Krasnodar region, the Crimean Peninsula, Black Sea, and regions of Rostov, Bryansk, Belgorod, Kursk, Kaluga, and Voronezh, as well as the Sea of Azov.

In a related context, a Russian military source reported that drone systems and artillery crews targeted Ukrainian military communications infrastructure in the Kharkiv region during the first week of March.

The source said that Russian forces destroyed more than 30 communications antennas and around 20 satellite stations belonging to the Starlink network, which led to the disruption of Ukrainian military communications in some areas.

The source added that the same operations also destroyed more than 20 drone command centers belonging to the Ukrainian armed forces during the same period.

Since the outbreak of the war on Feb. 24, 2022, both Russia and Ukraine have been issuing near-daily reports on the course of the fighting and the affected areas. Due to the ongoing war and the nature of the combat, these statements are often released by both sides without independent verification, which limits the ability to accurately confirm the scale of losses and damage on the ground. (QNA)