The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that overnight air defense units intercepted and destroyed 46 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions.

According to the ministry, the operation took place between 10:55 p.m. on August 16 and 6:00 a.m. on August 17, when Russian air defense systems shot down dozens of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.

Officials specified that 16 drones were downed over the Belgorod region, 14 over Nizhny Novgorod, and nine over Voronezh. Three more were intercepted above Bryansk, while one drone each was destroyed in the skies over Kursk, Oryol, Kaluga, and Smolensk regions.

Earlier in the morning, the ministry also reported the destruction of 29 additional Ukrainian drones of various types across several Russian regions and above the Sea of Azov. On the previous day, Russian aviation, artillery, missile forces, and strike drones targeted Ukrainian ammunition depots as well as storage sites for long-range UAVs.