Drones target Russian regions, including Moscow, authorities say

More than 140 drones have targeted Russian regions, including the capital Moscow and the surrounding areas, Russian officials say, in one of the biggest Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian soil in the 2½-year war.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying Russia would work with international organisations after the strikes she described as “an illegal terrorist action”.

A photo from Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyev’s Telegram channel shows the building hit by a Ukrainian drone.Credit: AP

On Tuesday, in the town of Ramenskoye, just outside Moscow, drones hit two multi-storey residential buildings and started fires, Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyov said. A woman was killed and three people sustained injuries. Five residential buildings near one of those damaged were evacuated as emergency services handled drone debris, Vorobyov said.

The attack prompted the authorities to temporarily shut down three airports just outside Moscow – Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky. Forty-eight flights were diverted to other airports, according to Russian civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia.

In Moscow’s outskirts, debris from drones that were approaching the capital fell on a house, but no one was hurt, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. He counted more than a dozen drones heading towards Moscow that were shot down by air defences.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had “intercepted and destroyed” 144 Ukrainian drones over nine Russian regions, including those on the border with Ukraine and those deeper inside Russia.

It is the second massive Ukrainian drone attack on Russia this month. On September 1, the Russian military said it had intercepted 158 Ukrainian drones over a dozen Russian regions in what Russian media described as the biggest Ukrainian drone barrage since the start of the war.

In the opposite direction, Russian drone and missile attacks injured at least three people, damaged buildings and caused fires across Ukraine, authorities said.

The Ukrainian air force shot down 38 out of 46 Russia-launched drones during an overnight attack across 13 regions, according to a statement on the Telegram messaging app. Russia also used two missiles in its attack, it said.

Regional governor Ihor Taburets said the attack injured two people and damaged several buildings in the city of Cherkasy. The strike damaged an infrastructure facility in the region and caused a fire that had since been put out, he said, without specifying what had been hit.

Kyiv regional governor Ruslan Kravchenko said the attack also damaged a building and caused a fire in an open area in the area surrounding the capital, after air defences engaged aerial targets. The Kyiv city authorities reported no damage or casualties in the capital.

Overnight attacks on the southern region of Kherson damaged a kindergarten and cars in a car park, according to regional governor Oleksander Prokudin. One person was injured there in Russia’s drone attack, the local authorities added.

More to come

AP, Reuters

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