Moscow [Russia], September 3: Russian President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged that Ukrainian drone attacks have damaged around 100 Russian ships, but said that Kiev has not inflicted "critical damage" on the country.
"I think they have caused us real damage," Putin conceded to reporters in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek on Tuesday.
"People have died, sailors, including foreigners," he said, adding that citizens of Azerbaijan and Turkiye were among those killed. Putin said preliminary estimates put the overall damage caused by the attacks so far at around 1% of Russia's gross domestic product.
"This is not critical damage for us. Nor can they inflict critical damage on us," he said.
Ukraine has targeted oil tankers and grain ships in the Black Sea and neighbouring Sea of Azov as part of its campaign against Russia.
Kiev has also significantly stepped up long-range drone strikes deep inside Russian territory, repeatedly targeting oil refineries and logistics hubs.
Putin said protection of Russian refineries had since been significantly improved. Companies had previously complained that the Russian state had failed to guarantee their security despite repeated assurances from Putin.
Ukraine is seeking to damage the Russian economy and make it more difficult for Moscow to finance its war effort.
Putin repeated comments from a recent interview accusing Kiev of having opened "Pandora's box" with the attacks and threatened even more destructive Russian air strikes in response.
Russia has intensified attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Kiev has also reported billions in damage and accused its Western allies of failing to provide sufficient air defence missiles.
Meanwhile, Russian drone attacks across Ukraine have killed at least one person and wounded more than a dozen others, as Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin threatened to escalate the conflict.
Between Tuesday and Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities reported attacks in the capital, Kiev, in the southern city of Odesa and in eastern Dnipro, where the body of a man was retrieved from under rubble.
Russia fired 174 attack drones, about half of them jet-powered drones that are hard to stop and are increasingly being deployed by Moscow, as well as two ballistic missiles and two plane-launched missiles at Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
Meanwhile in Russia, air defences destroyed 130 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Defence Ministry said on Wednesday. The drones were shot down over 11 Russian regions, as well as the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the Black Sea, it said.
Source: Qatar Tribune