Ukraine targets Moscow with its biggest drone attack of the war
CBC
Ukraine attacked Moscow on Sunday with at least 34 drones, the biggest drone strike on the Russian capital since the start of the war in 2022, forcing flights to be diverted from three of the city's major airports and injuring at least one person.
Russian air defences destroyed another 36 drones over other regions of Western Russia in three hours on Sunday, the defence ministry said.
"An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using an airplane-type drones on the territory of the Russian Federation was thwarted," the ministry said.
Russia's federal air transport agency said three airports — Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky — diverted at least 36 flights, but then resumed operations. One person was reported injured in Moscow region.
A woman in her 50s suffered burns to her face, neck and hands after drones sparked a blaze in her village southeast of Moscow, local Gov. Andrei Vorobyov reported.
No one was hurt in Moscow itself, according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, although Russian channels on the messaging app Telegram carried eyewitness reports of drone debris setting fire to suburban homes.
Moscow and its surrounding region, with a population of at least 21 million people, is one of the biggest metropolitan areas in Europe.
For its part, Russia launched a record 145 drones overnight, Ukraine said. Kyiv said its air defences downed 62 of those.
Ukraine also said it attacked an arsenal in the Bryansk region of Russia, which reported 14 drones had been downed in the region.
Unverified video posted on Russian Telegram channels showed drones buzzing across the skyline.
The war in Ukraine is entering what some officials say could be its final act after Moscow's forces advanced at the fastest pace since the early days of the war and Donald Trump was re-elected as president of the United States.
Trump, who takes office in January, said during campaigning that he could bring peace in Ukraine within 24 hours, but has given few details on how he would seek to do this.
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Trump to congratulate him on his presidential election victory, Tesla CEO and Trump supporter Elon Musk joined the call, according to media reports. Musk owns SpaceX, which provides Starlink satellite communication services that are vital for Ukraine's defence effort.
Kyiv, itself the target of repeated mass drone strikes from Russian forces, has tried to strike back against its vastly larger eastern neighbour with drone strikes against oil refineries, airfields and strategic early-warning radar stations.
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