A traffic police officer works on a street in central Moscow, Russia, August 21, 2024. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
(1/2)A traffic police officer works on a street in central Moscow, Russia, August 21, 2024. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov License rights will open in a new tabMoscow says it thwarted drone attackDestroyed 11 drones over Moscow regionNo damage or casualties reportedRussia says it shot down a total of 45 drones overnightRussia fights Ukraine's Kursk invasionMOSCOW, Aug 21 (Reuters) – Ukraine attacked Moscow with at least 11 drones on Wednesday, which were shot down by its air defenses. Russian officials said it was one of the largest drone attacks on the capital since the Ukrainian war began in February 2022.
The war, fought mainly through heavy artillery bombardment and drone attacks across the plains, forests and villages of eastern Ukraine, intensified on August 6 when Ukraine sent thousands of troops across the border into Russia's western Kursk region.
Ukraine has been conducting an increasingly deadly drone attack on refineries and airports in Russia, the world's second-largest oil exporter, for months, but large-scale drone attacks on the Moscow region, home to more than 21 million people, have been rare.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that its air defense forces destroyed a total of 45 drones over Russian territory: 11 over the Moscow Region, 23 over the Bryansk border region, six over the Belgorod Region, three over the Kaluga Region and two over the Kursk Region.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said part of the drone was shot down over the city of Podolsk, in the Moscow Region, about 38 kilometers (24 miles) south of the Kremlin.
“This is the largest ever attempt to attack Moscow using drones,” Sobyanin said in a Telegram message early on Wednesday. “Moscow's built-in multi-layered defenses allowed us to repel all enemy drone attacks.”
Along Moscow's main thoroughfares, the capital's cafes, restaurants and shops, carefully insulated from the war, were bustling with little sign of concern, while President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in the Kremlin.
Two Russians, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the thwarted drone attack showed how strong Moscow's defences were and that Ukraine was “playing with fire” by attacking Russia both at Kursk and in Moscow.
Meanwhile, Russia continues to advance in eastern Ukraine, where it now controls about 18 percent of the country's territory, and is fighting to repel a Ukrainian invasion of the Kursk region, the largest foreign attack on Russian territory since World War II.
Russian media released unconfirmed footage of the drone circling the dawn sky over the Moscow region before being shot down in a ball of fire by Russian air defense forces.
Moscow's Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports restricted flights for four hours but resumed normal operations from 3:30 a.m. GMT, Russia's aviation watchdog said.
Sobyanin said that according to preliminary information, no injuries or damage had been reported after the attack. No casualties or damage had been reported following the attack in Russia's southwestern Bryansk region, the region's governor, Alexander Bogomaz, wrote on Telegram.
Russia's state-run RIA news agency reported that two drones were destroyed in the skies over Tula Oblast, which borders Moscow Oblast to the north. Vasily Golubev, governor of the southwestern Russian region of Rostov, said air defense forces had destroyed a missile fired by Ukraine over his region, but that there had been no reports of injuries.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not mention Tula or Rostov in a statement listing the Ukrainian air weapons it had destroyed. The Ukrainian military said on Wednesday it had carried out an overnight strike on an S-300 surface-to-air missile system stationed in the Rostov region.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the report.
The drone attack on Moscow was on par with one in May 2023 that destroyed at least eight drones over the capital, and Putin said the attack was an attempt by Ukraine to intimidate and provoke Russia.
In Kursk, Russian war bloggers reported that heavy fighting was continuing on the front line in an area where Ukraine has ceded at least 450 square kilometers (175 square miles) of Russian territory.
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Reporting by Lydia Kelly in Melbourne and Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow; Editing by Michael Perry and Mark Heinrich
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