The capital’s international airports have been forced to temporarily halt flights due to the incursions
A total of 105 Ukrainian drones heading towards Russia’s capital have been shot down by air defenses this weekend, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has said.
Reports of the destruction of one or several incoming UAVs have popped up on Sobyanin’s Telegram channel almost every hour throughout the day.
Emergency services workers have been deployed in various locations where the debris of the intercepted drones fell, the mayor relayed.
The incursions have forced Moscow’s Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky international airports to temporarily halt flights, according to Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsia.
The Defense Ministry said mid-day on Sunday that at least 295 of the hostile UAVs have been destroyed in Russian airspace since 9:00 PM local time (18:00 GMT) on Saturday.
Besides Moscow and Moscow Region, the interceptions took place in Bryansk, Kaluga, Belgorod, Tver, Smolensk, Kursk, Tula, Saratov, Volgograd, and Krasnodar regions as well as in Crimea and the Republic of Adygea, it said.
The Ukrainian drone raid started on Friday, with Kiev deploying some 600 fixed-wing UAVs since then, according to figures from the defense ministry.
Ukraine has routinely launched UAV attacks against Russia in recent months, targeting critical infrastructure and residential areas in what Moscow has described as desperate “terrorist attacks.”
Russia has been hitting Ukrainian military-related infrastructure in response.
On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported another such large-scale strike, saying that Moscow’s aviation, missiles, drones and artillery attacked energy and transport facilities used by Ukrainian troops as well as UAV launch sites and temporary deployment sites of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and foreign mercenaries in 148 locations.
