Russian air defenses shoot down 10 Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow
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Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin says no casualties or damage had been reported due to the attack.
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Soldiers of Ukraine's National Guard 15th Brigade launch a reconnaissance drone Penguin on a wheat field to determine Russian positions, as a farmer harvests in the background, near the front line in Zaporozhye region, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP)
Russian air defenses intercepted 10 Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow, the city's mayor announced early Wednesday.
"Moscow's layered defence against enemy UAVs that was created has allowed us to successfully repel all attacks," Mayor Sergei Sobyanin stated in a Telegram post.
He highlighted that "this is one of the largest attempts to attack Moscow with drones ever," noting that 10 drones were shot down by Russian air defenses.
Sobyanin also confirmed in an earlier update that no casualties or damage had been reported.
Drone strikes on Moscow remain uncommon. In May, Russia said it downed a drone outside the capital, briefly leading to flight restrictions at two major airports in the city.
Since the conflict erupted in 2022, Kiev has frequently targeted oil and gas installations deep within Russia, some hundreds of kilometers from the border, framing these strikes as "fair" retaliation for attacks on its own energy infrastructure.
On Sunday, Ukrainian drones hit an oil storage facility in Russia's southern Rostov region, igniting a massive fire, according to the regional governor.
As of Tuesday, the blaze in Proletarsk city continued, with approximately 500 Russian firefighters engaged in efforts to extinguish it.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky commended his forces for targeting Russian oil facilities, stating that such strikes contribute to a "just end" of the conflict.
The drone strikes coincide with Ukraine’s cross-border operations in Russia's Kursk region, where it claims to have seized control of more than 80 settlements. Ukraine launched a large-scale surprise offensive into the Kursk region on August 6.
But on Tuesday, Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces, confirmed that the Ukrainian forces’ attempts to advance have been halted across the entirety of the region, with their key resources eliminated, adding that Russian troops are now focusing on clearing settlements.
Alaudinov indicated that the destruction of major Ukrainian resources, including forward echelons, "inflicted very heavy damage on the enemy. They lost a lot of equipment, tanks, armored vehicles and a lot of infantry."
"I think at the moment, we no longer have to worry that the enemy, no matter how many more resources he has, could pass through the area where we're situated," he affirmed.
The commander also emphasized that the Ukrainian forces were stopped in an unfavorable position and have now begun entrenching themselves.
In a related context, Russian forces announced Tuesday the capture of the strategic hub of New York, in the Donetsk People's Republic, east of Ukraine, "as a result of active operations by the Tsentr (Center) Group of Forces units."
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that its troops took control of "one of the largest settlements of the Toretsk agglomeration and the strategically important logistics hub (of) Novgorodskoye," referring to the town by its Soviet-era name.
On Monday, the ministry also said Russian forces seized the nearby town of Zalizne, close to New York.
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