UKRAINE has launched one of its largest drone attacks on Moscow, as it presses on with a major incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, Russian authorities said.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday that air defence forces shot down 11 drones over Moscow and its surrounding region, with some reportedly downed over the city of Podolsk some 38km (24 miles) south of the Kremlin.
“This is one of the largest ever attempts to attack Moscow with drones,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on the Telegram messaging app. No damage or casualties were reported.
Drone attacks on Moscow are rare. Ukraine’s latest attempt to target the Russian capital appeared to be larger than an attack in May 2023, when at least eight drones were struck down.
The barrage was part of a broader attack on Russia, with the Ministry of Defence saying its air defence units destroyed 45 Ukrainian drones in total overnight.
In addition to the 11 drones destroyed over the Moscow region, 23 drones were downed in the border region of Bryansk, six in the border region of Belgorod, three in the Kaluga region, which borders the Moscow region to its northeast, and two in the embattled Kursk region, the ministry said.
Russia’s state news agency RIA reported that two drones were destroyed over the Tula region, which borders the Moscow region to its north.
Following the assault on Moscow, temporary restrictions were imposed overnight at Moscow’s Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports, but all three returned to normal operations later on Wednesday.
Reporting from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s defence editor, Alex Gatopoulos, said given how well protected Moscow and other Russian cities are “it remains to be seen whether this is a departure or just a one-off by Ukraine’s military command”.
