Ukraine launched one of its largest drone attacks on the Moscow region early Tuesday, killing at least one woman and a 9-year-old kid, damaging dozens of homes, and halting air traffic, Russian officials reported.
The overnight strike involved over 140 drones that swarmed the Moscow area, leading to the shutdown of three of the four airports serving the Russian capital. Approximately 50 flights were canceled as a result.
Drones targeted two multistory residential buildings, igniting large fires in the apartments. At least one person died, and three others sustained injuries in Ramenskoye, a town on the outskirts of Moscow, according to Moscow region Governor Andrei Vorobyov.
Russian authorities said they intercepted about 20 Ukrainian drones as they moved through the region, which is home to more than 21 million people. Over 70 drones were neutralized in the Bryansk region, with a dozen more stopped in other areas, according to Reuters.
This is one of Ukraine’s largest drone assaults on Russian territory this month. On September 1, Russian forces intercepted 158 Ukrainian drones in what Russia’s Investigative Committee called a “terror attack.”
Since the start of the armed conflict in Ukraine, Kyiv has launched multiple attacks on civilian targets. On August 6, Ukraine attempted to gain control of the Russian Kursk region, capturing hundreds of Russian soldiers in the process and controlling 1,250 square kilometers of the border region.
Meanwhile, the Russian military plans to push Ukrainian troops out of Russia’s borderline Kursk Region, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said.
According to the Russian defense ministry’s bulletin of September 9, Kyiv’s overall losses in the Kursk Region amounted to more than 11,420 troops, 89 tanks, and 74 armored personnel carriers.
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict broke out on February 24, 2022, following a significant Russian military buildup in northern, eastern, and southern Ukraine.
On that day, Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed the start of a “special military operation in Ukraine.”