Moscow, 22 August 2024 (dpa/MIA) - An overnight Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire to erupt at a military base in southern Russia, a regional governor said on Thursday.

Andrey Bocharov, the governor of the Volgograd region, said air defences had repelled most of the unmanned aircraft but that a downed drone had crashed and sparked the blaze.

The governor said that the premises of a military site were hit, without offering further details.

Russian war bloggers said the target was the Marinovka Air Base, located about 45 kilometres from the regional capital Volgograd.

The Russian state news agency TASS reported that air traffic was temporarily restricted at the civilian airport in Volgograd due to the risk posed by the drones.

In Moscow, the Russian Defence Ministry said that 28 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted overnight, 13 of which were over the Volgograd region alone.

Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian invasion for almost two and a half years. In recent months, it has expanded the production of long-range combat drones.

The unmanned aerial vehicles are being deployed in swarms against major infrastructure such as oil facilities, but increasingly against military targets too. Russian jets, ammunition depots and fuel supplies have been hit.

But the damage pales in comparison to the devastation caused by Russia's daily missile and drone strikes against Ukraine, which frequently hit energy infrastructure, civilian facilities and private residences.

MIA file photo