Ukraine launched its largest-ever drone attack on Moscow on Sunday, deploying at least 34 drones to pummel the Russian capital.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense confirmed the attack in a Telegram post on Sunday and said it had intercepted 29 additional drones. The ministry wrote that it had thwarted the attack.
“Between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. Moscow time, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using unmanned aerial vehicles against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation was thwarted,” the post said. (translated from Russian).
Moscow is Russia’s largest city with a population of 21 million people. The attack was the largest drone attack on Ukraine’s capital in 2022.
more
Tatyana Makeeva/AFP via Getty Images
The attack followed Russia’s own large-scale offensive, and early Sunday morning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote in X that Russia launched 145 drones into Ukraine on Saturday night. .
“This week, our air defense forces have been working day and night to protect Ukraine’s skies from Russian terrorism,” Zelenskiy said. “Last night, Russia launched a record number of 145 Shahed and other drones against Ukraine.”
Kiev announced that it had shot down 62 Russian drones. President Zelenskiy said the Russian military has escalated its use of guided bombs and missiles and continues to carry out persistent attacks, inflicting heavy casualties on Ukrainian civilians.
“Words cannot stop such horrors, and the murder of a child or the loss of a loved one cannot be easily forgotten,” he wrote.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, drones have been used as a formidable military tool by both countries. Russia relies heavily on Iranian-made Shahid drones, which first appeared on Ukrainian battlefields in September 2022, although Iran claimed to have sold the drones before the conflict began.
Ukraine has increasingly relied on drones to level the power differential with Russia, using them to attack a variety of Russian assets, from ammunition factories to oil refineries to radar stations. are.
According to Reuters, Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency said a drone headed for Moscow disrupted operations at three major airports: Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky. Flight operations resumed shortly after, but the Defense Ministry said at least five people were injured in the attack in the Moscow region.
As the drone war intensifies, speculation is rife about the outcome of the conflict. The recent US presidential election, which saw Donald Trump return to office, has reignited debate over peace talks, with Trump previously claiming he could broker a resolution within 24 hours of taking office.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called Trump to congratulate him on his victory, and Elon Musk, the tech billionaire whose SpaceX company provides Ukraine with Starlink satellite communications, reportedly joined the conversation. .
Last week, the Ukrainian Counter-Disinformation Center confirmed that Ukrainian troops had engaged North Korean soldiers for the first time. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency reported that 12,000 soldiers, 500 officers and three generals are being sent to Russia from North Korea.
