Russia says it downed Ukrainian missile off Crimea coast, governor reports drone

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Russian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday evening it had shot down a Ukrainian missile off the Crimea coast, and the local Russia-appointed governor reported damage to dwellings from debris from a downed drone.

The ministry statement said Russian air defence systems had downed a Ukrainian Neptun missile over the northwestern part of the Black Sea off the coast of the Crimean Peninsula.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russia-appointed governor of the port of Sevastopol, said debris from the drone had landed on the roof of an apartment building, though there were no injuries. Some windows had been blown out.

Razvozhaev, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said emergency services were determining how to remove explosive materials from the site.

Ukraine has in recent weeks stepped up attacks on Crimea, occupied and annexed by Russia in 2014, eight years before its February 2022 invasion of eastern and southern Ukraine.

(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov and Ron Popeski; editing by Chris Reese and Mark Heinrich)