MOSCOW: Authorities in Moscow-annexed Crimea said Thursday that a thermal power plant on the peninsula was targeted by an overnight drone attack, but claimed it was not badly damaged.

“Today at night there was a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) attack on the Balaklava thermal power station,” the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram. “The transformer is minimally damaged. There were no casualties,” he added.

The official said there was “no threat to power supply” and that “the incident does not affect the power supply of Sevastopol and the peninsula.”

He said the transformer that caught fire during the supposed attack “was under maintenance and did not work”.

“Workers at the plant quickly dealt with the fire,” he added.

His statement came as Ukraine presses with a counter-offensive in the south.

Moscow’s forces fighting in Ukraine have in recent weeks hit the country’s power supplies.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.