Oleg Kryuchkov,an adviser to the Russia-installed head of Crimea,said the drone attack was aimed at civilian targets.

“All the drones targeted civilian sites. One was hit over the Dzhankoi technical school and came down between the instruction area and a student residence,” he said on his Telegram channel.

“There are no military sites nearby. The others were downed in residential areas. In addition to explosives,each one carried shrapnel.”

A Russian military air base is located near Dzhankoi,with Ukrainian officials long saying that the city and the surrounding areas have been turned into the largest Moscow military base in Crimea.

Ukraine has staged a number of daring attacks on targets in Crimea. Last August,missiles destroyed several planes at an air base on the peninsula’s south-west coast and Ukrainian authorities later claimed responsibility for the attack.

Earlier,the Russian Defence Ministry said a Russian Su-35 fighter jet was scrambled over the Baltic Sea after two US strategic bombers flew in the direction of the Russian border,but that it returned to base after they moved away.

The development followed the March 14 crash of aUS drone into the Black Sea after it was intercepted by Russian jets in what was the first known direct military encounter between Russia and the United States since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.

“On March 20,radar facilities of the air defence forces of the Western military district on duty over the Baltic Sea detected two air targets flying in the direction of the Russian Federation’s state border,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday (AEDT).

It said the targets were US Air Force B52H strategic bombers.

It said a Su-35 fighter jet had taken to the air to prevent a border violation,and added,“after the foreign military aircraft moved away from the Russian Federation state border,the Russian fighter returned to its base airfield”.

The ministry said the Su-35’s flight was strictly in line with international rules of the use of airspace. “No violation of the state border of the Russian Federation was permitted,” it said.

Reuters

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