MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/. Air defenses shot down 42 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions in five hours on Saturday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

"On-duty air defenses intercepted and destroyed 42 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles over the Belgorod, Bryansk, Kaluga, Kursk, Nizhny Novgorod, Smolensk, Tula, Perm and Moscow regions, as well as over Crimea, between 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Moscow time (7:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. GMT) on May 23," the statement reads.