Moscow targeted in massive Ukrainian drone raid – mayor
Moscow has come under another large-scale Ukrainian drone raid, with Russian air defenses destroying at least 194 UAVs targeting the capital overnight, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has said.
The attacks were largely thwarted by air defense systems, which continued to engage incoming drones around the city on Thursday morning, according to Sobyanin.
Several drones reached the Moscow Oil Refinery in the southeastern Kapotnya district of the city, the mayor said. Firefighters have been deployed to the site.
Debris from a downed UAV delivered minor damage to a building at the Sadovod shopping center in southeastern Moscow, according to Sobyanin. No one was injured in the incident, he said.
All four of Moscow’s international airports were forced to halt flights during the raid, Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsia, said.
In Moscow Region, a drone struck an apartment block in the city of Zhukovsky, Governor Andrey Vorobyev said on Telegram. There were no injuries and residents have been evacuated from the building, he said.
A woman was lightly wounded after debris from a UAV fell on the roof of her home near the city of Eletrostal, around 58 km east of the capital, according to the governor.
A car also caught fire the city after being struck by drone debris, he added.
The roof of the Belaya Dacha mall on the Moscow Ring Road, east of the capital, caught fire as a result of a drone attack, Vorobiev said. The mall’s administration announced later that it was temporarily shutting down.
Debris from drones fell in several areas in the nearby city of Lyubertsy, according to the governor.
Private homes were also damaged outside the city of Chekhov, around 50 km south of Moscow, he said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said more than 550 Ukrainian UAVs had been shot down across the country since Wednesday evening. The interceptions took place in Moscow, Astrakhan, Belgorod, Bryansk, Volgograd, Voronezh, Vladimir, Kaluga, Kursk, Lipetsk, Orel, Smolensk, Tambov, Tver, Tula, Rostov, and Ryazan regions, as well as in Crimea and over the Sea of Azov, it said.
One person was killed and two others wounded in a drone attack on the town of Gukovo in Rostov Region, according to Governor Yury Slusar.
