Military drones targeted northwestern Russia’s Murmansk region for the second time in a month, Russian authorities said Wednesday.
“Our region is under attack from enemy drones,” Murmansk region Governor Andrei Chibis said in a video message posted on Telegram, seeming to refer to Ukraine.
Civil aviation authorities restricted air traffic at airports in the regional capital Murmansk, as well as in the town of Apatity. Both airports saw similar restrictions in mid-August during a drone attack at the time.
“All necessary measures to improve security are being undertaken, and air defense forces are working to destroy the enemy drones,” Chibis said. He did not specify whether there was any damage on the ground.
The Murmansk region’s emergency response center said it was “testing” its air raid alert system around the time of the reported drone attacks, as part of a “scheduled” maintenance.
“Please remain calm,” the response center wrote on its social media page.
Russia’s Defense Ministry did not mention any drone sightings over the Murmansk region, saying earlier its air defense systems had shot down Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod, Kursk and Oryol regions overnight and into the morning.
Unconfirmed reports by Telegram news channels with links to Russia’s security forces claimed that the drones over the Murmansk region had flown from its border with Norway. Two drones were also reportedly flying toward the neighboring Arkhangelsk region, though The Moscow Times could not verify the claims.
The city of Murmansk is located nearly 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) from Russia’s border with Ukraine.
Wednesday’s reported attack is at least the second drone incident in the Murmansk region over the past two days, according to Violetta Grudina, the former Murmansk region coordinator for Alexei Navalny’s activist organization.
The first drone attack in the Murmansk region since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago was reported in mid-August.
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