Most of the UAVs were intercepted at long range and ten were neutralized on approach to the Russian capital, Sergey Sobyanin has said
More than 200 Ukrainian drones were launched toward Moscow Region overnight, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has said.
According to Sobyanin, the UAVs were detected from Wednesday evening to 9:00 AM Thursday, and most of them were intercepted by Russian air defenses at long range.
”Ten enemy UAVs were destroyed on approach to Moscow,” the mayor wrote on Telegram, adding that emergency crews were working at sites where debris fell.
The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier that the air defenses intercepted and destroyed 375 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over a number of Russian regions overnight, including Moscow Region.
The attack prompted temporary restrictions at all airports in Moscow and other cities, including Penza, Saratov, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl, and Cherepovets.
The latest raid followed another large-scale Ukrainian drone attack earlier this week. On Tuesday, Sobyanin said around 340 UAVs were headed toward Moscow Region; most were intercepted at long range and more than 50 were destroyed on approach to the capital.
On Monday, a Ukrainian drone attack caused serious damage in Moscow Region’s Istra district. Three people were killed and three others injured in the settlement of Pionersky; two more people were injured in Solnechnogorsk. The local authorities declared a state of emergency in the city following the strike.
Moscow and the surrounding region have increasingly been targeted by long-range Ukrainian drones in recent weeks, aimed at energy facilities, transportation infrastructure, and civilian sites.
Russia has described the strikes as indiscriminate terrorist attacks intended to divert attention away from Ukraine’s setbacks on the battlefield, and has responded with a renewed campaign of long-range strikes targeting dual-use and military industrial sites.
The bulk of the Russian strikes have been focused on the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, with a number of military plants, drone assembly and storage facilities, and weaponry stockpiles targeted in recent weeks.
