MOSCOW, May 17 (Xinhua) -- Russian air defense forces shot down 1,045 Ukrainian drones over the past 24 hours, along with one Neptune-MD guided missile and one Flamingo cruise missile, the Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday.

Russian forces carried out strikes on drone assembly sites, temporary deployment points of Ukrainian armed formations, and foreign mercenaries fighting for Ukraine, RIA Novosti cited the ministry as saying.

Earlier Sunday, the ministry said that its air defense systems had shot down 556 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones overnight.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said earlier that more than 120 drones had been downed over the past 24 hours, in what TASS described as the largest drone attack on the Russian capital in over a year. ■