Ukraine launched a major drone attack on Moscow, targeting President Vladimir Putin’s capital with at least 25 drones early on Sunday (Nov 9), in what was described as the biggest Ukrainian attack on the city since the war started.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed the drone attack and said all of the drones were shot down. These attacks follow Russia hosting diplomats and officials from nearly 50 African states at a ministerial conference in Sochi on the Black Sea.
Moscow Mayor Sobyanin said in a Telegram post: “In all, 25 drones were destroyed.” According to him, they were headed toward Moscow’s Ramenskoye and Kolomensky districts and Domodedovo city to the southwest—a region of more than 21 million inhabitants, according to the news agency AFP.
According to official reports, there have been no casualties and no damage so far. However, people on social media report some structural damage in places.
“The preliminary information is that there is no damage or casualties at the site of the fall of the debris,” Sobyanin said on the Telegram messaging application. “Emergency services are on the sites.”
The drone attack temporarily halted operations at Moscow’s Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports.
The Russian federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsia, said in a statement: “To ensure the safety of civil aircraft flights, temporary restrictions have been imposed on the operation of the Domodedovo and Zhukovo airports,” effective 0530 GMT; it does not say for how long.
Ukrainian authorities have mentioned these attacks targeting the regular bombardments on Russian energy production facilities, as since the beginning of the war, they are retaliating to the bombardments on Ukrainian energy and infrastructure sites.
There are reports that Ukrainian drones have set fire to several non-residential structures in Russia’s Kaluga and Bryansk areas. Local authorities claim to have destroyed 17 drones over Bryansk.
