Russia is at war, but the capital Moscow is not affected by it. Now, for the first time, the attacked Ukraine is targeting the city of one million people again.
The Russian military shot down numerous Ukrainian combat drones near the capital Moscow on Wednesday night. “This was one of the largest attempted attacks on Moscow using drones in all time,” wrote Sergei Sobyanin, mayor of the city of twelve million, on his Telegram channel. According to his count, there were ten drones that were intercepted on their way to Moscow, while the military counted eleven.
Some of the aircraft landed in the Podolsk district, Sobyanin said. This district is located just a few dozen kilometers south of the city limits. The Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports in the south and east of Moscow were temporarily closed overnight for security reasons, the aviation authority Rosaviatsia said.
In fact, Ukraine has not flown drones against the Russian capital for a long time. In 2023, individual unmanned aerial vehicles of Ukrainian origin caused rather symbolic damage to a skyscraper in the high-rise district of Moskva City.
The Russian military also announced that a total of 45 Ukrainian drones were intercepted during the night, 23 of them over the Bryansk border region alone. The information could not be independently verified.
In the late afternoon, the alarm was raised in the northern Russian port city of Murmansk about possible drones. The airport there was closed for the time being.
Ukraine reports hits on Russian air defense system
One of the targets of the Ukrainian attacks was in the southern Russian region of Rostov, the General Staff in Kiev announced. A Russian S-300 anti-aircraft system was fired upon near Novoshakhtinsk. Russia also repeatedly uses these systems to attack ground targets in Ukraine. There was no independent confirmation of this either.
Ukraine itself has been subjected to Russian air strikes every night since the Russian invasion in February 2022, targeting important energy infrastructure, among other things. Explosions were also reported from the western Ukrainian region of Khmelnytskyi on Wednesday night. In the morning, the alarm was still in effect in several parts of the country.
Ukrainian defenders on the defensive near Pokrovsk
According to military sources, Ukrainian troops were still under heavy pressure during the ground fighting in the east of the country. On Tuesday alone, there were 66 Russian assaults on the Pokrovsk front, reported the General Staff. Fighting took place over many towns that the Russians consider to be on the way to Pokrovsk, which is still about ten kilometers away. Russian military bloggers reported that their troops were advancing. The industrial and mining town of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region had about 65,000 inhabitants before the war and is important for supplying Ukrainian troops on this front. According to Ukrainian military sources, there were also heavy battles further north near Toretsk.
Ukrainians advance in the Kursk region
In the Russian region of Kursk, however, observers estimate that Ukrainian troops are advancing further in their offensive. The US Institute for War Studies (ISW) cited photos from the region as evidence that the Ukrainians are fighting their way closer to the district town of Korenyevo. From the town of Sudzha, which fell into Ukrainian hands right at the start of the offensive, the advance continues eastwards.
After almost two and a half years of fending off the Russian invasion, Ukraine has moved ground fighting into enemy territory for the first time with its advance into the Russian region of Kursk. According to Ukrainian commander-in-chief Olexander Syrskyj, more than 1,260 square kilometers and 93 towns have now been captured.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
