The Moscow region was targeted overnight by ‘one of the biggest’ Ukrainian drone attacks, the mayor of the Russian capital announced today, while Ukraine said it had neutralized 50 Russian devices.
Russia, which launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine in February 2022, has been facing an unprecedented Ukrainian offensive in the Russian border region of Kursk since 6 August.
According to the Russian Defence Ministry, ‘11 drones were destroyed’ over Moscow and the capital region during the night.
The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, said it was ‘one of the biggest attempted attacks ever carried out’ against the Russian capital with explosive drones.
The city of Moscow, located more than 500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, has been the target of rare drone attacks.
In the summer of 2023, unmanned aircraft were destroyed over the capital's shopping centre.
In May of the same year, two drones were shot down over the Kremlin (presidency) in the heart of Moscow.
Russian air defence today destroyed 45 Ukrainian drones in the Moscow (11), Bryansk (23), Belgorod (6), Kaluga (3) and Kursk (2) regions, the Defence Ministry said in a statement quoted by the French news agency AFP.
A missile was also shot down in the west of the Rostov region, which borders Ukraine, according to the regional governor, Vassili Golubev.
Russia has been facing a cross-border offensive by Ukrainian forces for the last two weeks, while Russian troops continue to advance in eastern Ukraine towards the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region.
The offensive left 31 civilians dead and 143 injured, Russian authorities said today.
The Russian army claimed control of the town of Zhelanne, about 20 kilometers from the city of Pokrovsk, an important logistics center, in recent hours.
On the Ukrainian side, the commander of the air force, Mykola Olechchuk, said that anti-aircraft defenses shot down 50 explosive drones and a missile launched by Russia against Ukraine during the night.
The head of the Kyiv military administration, Sergei Popko, said on social media that 10 of the drones were intercepted as they were heading towards the Ukrainian capital.
"The air strike lasted all night and morning, for a total of more than nine hours," Kyiv regional authorities said.
In more than two weeks of fighting, Ukrainian troops have taken control of some 93 towns and more than 1,200 square kilometres of Russian territory, Kyiv said, according to the Spanish news agency EFE.
The offensive has led Russian authorities to evacuate 122,000 residents from the area, Kyiv added.
No comments:
Post a Comment