The secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, said on Thursday that Ukraine has carried out over 70 drone attacks on Crimea this year, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.
“The targets, as a rule, are energy and industrial infrastructure facilities, the destruction or damage of which threatens peaceful life and human health,” Patrushev was quoted as telling a meeting on the security of southern Russia in Krasnodar.
Russia seized and unilaterally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, in a move not recognized internationally. Kyiv demands that Moscow hand it back.
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Separately on Thursday, Patrushev said that threats to Russia from the US-led NATO military alliance were growing, according to the TASS news agency.
TASS quoted Patrushev as referring to a build-up of NATO military infrastructure near Russia’s borders, the intensification of reconnaissance activities and the presence of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe.
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