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4 months ago
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Authorities in northern Russia's Murmansk region issued a drone attack warning on Wednesday, as local airports imposed flight restrictions following unverified reports of an unmanned aircraft being shot down.
"A drone threat has been detected in the Murmansk region," Governor Andrei Chibis wrote on Telegram. "All necessary security measures are being taken."
Shortly before the announcement, civil aviation authorities introduced flight restrictions at airports in the regional capital, Murmansk, and the town of Apatity.
"Aircraft crews, air traffic controllers, and airport services are taking all necessary measures to ensure flight safety — this is the priority," Russia's state aviation agency Rosaviatsia was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
Earlier, Violetta Grudina, the former regional coordinator for Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's activist organization, shared a video allegedly showing Russian air defense systems destroying a drone over Murmansk.
"Eyewitnesses said the video shows a Ukrainian drone in the area of the closed military settlement of Vysoky," Grudina wrote on Telegram.
Vysoky is located around 1,755 kilometers (1,091 miles) north of Russia's border with Ukraine.
"Drones have been attacking the Murmansk region for four days," she added. "Because of the attacks, workers at the ANOF-3 plant and the Vostochny mine have been evacuated several times."
No drone attacks have previously been reported in the Murmansk region since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago.
If confirmed, Wednesday's reported drone downing would mark the furthest a Ukrainian drone has flown into Russian territory since the start of the war.
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