Russia says it downed 148 Ukrainian drones in three hours

Russia's military said early on Monday that air defence units had downed 148 Ukrainian drones over a three-hour period and officials said emergency crews were restoring power to nearly half a million households in outages linked to air attacks.

On Sunday evening, a ‌drone killed ⁠a ⁠civil defence volunteer in Russia's border region of Belgorod, a frequent target of the Ukrainian military, and drones also hit an apartment building in Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

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A Russian Defence Ministry statement said air defence units had intercepted 148 drones, mostly in central and southern ⁠areas of the ‌country, between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. (1700-2000 GMT) on Sundasy.

The mayor of the port of ⁠Novorossiysk, Andrei Kravchenko, said drone debris had struck a ​high-rise apartment building. There was no word on ​casualties.

In Crimea, a region seized and annexed by Russia in 2014, 10 years before the full-scale invasion, the governor of the port of Sevastopol said his city had come under four drone attacks throughout the ‌day. Seven drones were downed in the latest wave.

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In Russian-occupied Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, ​the head ​of the Russia-installed ⁠government, Andrei Chertkov, said repair crews had restored power to two major cities, Donetsk and Makiivka, after Ukrainian attacks on energy ​infrastructure.

Chertkov had earlier said that nearly half a million households had been left without electricity. Work was continuing in areas still without power.

Crews were also restoring power after mass outages in Russian-held areas of Zaporizhzhia region.