Ukraine launches its largest drone attacks on Moscow as Russian defenses shoot down dozens of the attacking drones

Ukraine launched one of the largest drone attacks on Moscow on Wednesday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, with Russian air defense units shooting down 45 drones flying towards the capital.

Some of the drones were destroyed over the city of Podolsk, which is located in the Moscow region about 38 kilometers south of the Kremlin, Sobyanin added.

“This is one of the largest attempts ever to attack Moscow with drones,” Sobyanin said via the Telegram.

The attack comes as Russia tries to push Ukrainian forces out of the Kursk region, two weeks after Ukraine stormed Russia’s western border in its biggest incursion into the country since World War II.

At the same time, Russian forces are advancing in eastern Ukraine.

Sobyanin said that based on initial information, no injuries or damage were reported in the aftermath of the attack.

Ukraine has been targeting Moscow with one or two drones in recent months, without causing serious damage.

Wednesday’s attack appears to be larger than one in May 2023, when at least eight drones were destroyed over the capital in what Russian President Vladimir Putin said was an attempt by Kyiv to intimidate and provoke Moscow.

Russian officials rarely disclose the exact scale of the attacks, only saying how many drones their air defense units destroy.

Both Ukraine and Russia also rarely disclose the full damage of their attacks unless they damage residential or civilian infrastructure or kill civilians.

Today’s attack on Moscow is part of a broader Ukrainian drone attack on Russia, with the Russian Defense Ministry saying air defense units destroyed 23 drones over the Bryansk border region.

The Russian Defense Ministry added that air defense units destroyed six drones over Belgorod, another Russian region on the border with Ukraine, three over the Kaluga region, which borders the Moscow region to the northeast, and two over the Kursk region.

Bryansk region governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram that there were no reports of casualties or damage following the attack on the border region in southwestern Russia.

According to media reports, two Ukrainian drones were destroyed over the Tula region, which borders the Moscow region to the north.

Separately, Vasily Golubev, governor of the Rostov region in southwestern Russia, said air defense forces had destroyed a Ukrainian missile over the region, with no reports of casualties.

The attacks on the Tula and Rostov regions weren’t mentioned in the Russian Defense Ministry’s statement about the destruction of air weapons.

On the other hand, Kyiv has intensified its air strikes on Russian territory in recent months, saying their goal is to destroy infrastructure essential to Moscow’s war effort.

It also says its attacks are in response to ongoing Russian strikes on Ukrainian territory.

The Kremlin said President Putin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov inspected Chechen troops and volunteers preparing to fight Ukraine, in Putin’s first visit to the North Caucasus republic in 13 years.

The unannounced visit to the Muslim-majority republic, which is part of Russia, comes as Moscow fights to drive Ukrainian forces out of the Kursk region two weeks after they stormed the border in Russia’s biggest invasion since World War II.

“As long as we have guys like you, we will be absolutely invincible,” Putin told troops at the Russian Special Forces University in Gudermes, Chechnya, according to a transcript on the Kremlin website.

“Shooting at a shooting range here is one thing, risking your life and health is another, but there is an internal need to defend the homeland and the courage to make such a decision,” Kadyrov told Putin in a separate meeting on Tuesday that Chechnya has sent more than 47,000 troops to fight in Ukraine since the start of the war, including about 19,000 volunteers.

The United States imposed sanctions on Kadyrov in 2020 over alleged human rights abuses and in 2022 over his mobilization of Chechen forces to fight in Ukraine.

Referring to the sudden Ukrainian incursion into Russian territory and the wider Donbas region in southeastern Ukraine, which is partially controlled by Russian forces, Putin said, “Just as we fought terrorists, today we must fight those who commit crimes in the Kursk region, in the Donbas”.

“We’ll punish the criminals… There is no doubt about that,” he added.