Russia downs 34 drones in biggest Ukrainian attack on Moscow

MOSCOW: Russia downed 34 Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow on Sunday, the defence ministry said, in the largest attack on the capital since Russia began its offensive in Ukraine in 2022.

The attack, which forced the temporary closure of three Moscow airports, injured a 52-year-old woman and set two homes on fire in the village of Stanovoye in the Moscow region, officials said.

While the Ukrainian capital Kyiv is regularly targeted by massive Russian drone and missile strikes, attacks on Moscow are much less frequent.

The defence ministry said Russia's air defence had downed a total of 70 Ukrainian drones between 0400 GMT and 0700 GMT over six regions.

It said 34 were downed over the Moscow region and the rest over Bryansk, Orlov, Kaluga, Tula and Kursk.

In the Moscow region, local officials said the drones were downed in the Ramenskoye, Kolomna and Domodedovo districts.A video published online by Russian media showed a house on fire, apparently in the Ramenskoye district.

In the previous largest drone attack on or near Moscow in September, a woman was killed in Ramenskoye -- the first time someone has been killed in a Ukrainian attack near the capital since the start of the conflict.

In May 2023, two drones were destroyed near the Kremlin and in the same year there were several drone attacks on the Moscow City business district.

- 'Massive' attack -

Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyov on Sunday said the drone attack had been "massive".

He said the injured woman had been hospitalised with "burns to her face, neck and hands".Russia's defence ministry said earlier it had downed a total of 23 Ukrainian drones over the Bryansk, Rostov, Belgorod and Kursk regions, which all border Ukraine and where drone strikes are more frequent.

Andrei Klychkov, the governor of Orlov region, which is closer to Moscow, said air defence had shot down a total of 10 drones over his region on Sunday.

Klychkov said there had been no casualties.

Ukraine has said the attacks, which often target energy production sites, are a response to Russian bombings on its territory since fighting began in February 2022.

Russian bombardment of Ukrainian cities in the night between Thursday and Friday last week killed at least one person and wounded more than three dozen more.

The air force said Moscow had launched five missiles, 92 drones as well as glide bombs across Ukraine overnight. Its units downed four missiles and 62 drones, the air force said in a statement.

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