Ukraine has launched its largest drone attack on Moscow since the start of the war, only hours before US and Ukrainian teams convened for key peace talks in Saudi Arabia.
The Russian defence ministry reported that 337 drones were launched at Russia overnight on Monday, including 91 targeting the Moscow region, killing two people, sparking fires and disrupting flights and train services.
A senior Ukrainian official in Ukraine said on Tuesday the drone attack launched on the Moscow region should encourage President Vladimir Putin to accept an aerial ceasefire proposed by Kyiv.
“The largest drone attack in history was carried out on Moscow and the Moscow region,” said Andriy Kovalenko, a national security council official responsible for countering disinformation. He added: “This is an additional signal to Putin that he should also be interested in a ceasefire in the air.”
The Russian health ministry reported that two people were killed and 18 injured in the Moscow region, while Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called it the largest Ukrainian drone attack on the city.
Russia’s aviation watchdog said flights were suspended at all four of Moscow’s airports. Two other airports, in the Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod regions east of Moscow, were also closed.
Russian state media published images of a damaged apartment in a multi-story building in the Ramenskoye district, about 31 miles (50km) south-east of the Kremlin.
Russian Telegram channels shared images showing the aftermath of drone strikes on a parking lot outside a large supermarket in Domodedovo, in Moscow’s southern suburbs, which killed two security guards and damaged about 40 vehicles.
Russian officials and pro-Russian outlets frequently say drones were shot down and their debris damaged housing or facilities – regardless of whether the drones hit their intended military targets.
Ukraine routinely launches drone attacks on Russia, targeting infrastructure critical to Moscow’s war effort in response to Russia’s continued bombing of Ukraine. However, Tuesday’s attack was the largest on the capital this year, coming hours before US and Ukrainian teams were set to meet for peace talks in Saudi Arabia, seemingly sending a signal to both Moscow and Washington that Kyiv was unwilling to accept an unfavourable peace deal.
On Monday, Zelenskyy travelled to Saudi Arabia, hoping to mend his strained relationship with the US and secure better terms to end the war. Ukraine also aims to persuade the Trump administration to reverse its decision to halt intelligence-sharing and military aid.
Without American military aid, Ukraine is leaning heavily on its fast-growing drone industry and the production of domestically made artillery systems to sustain its defene efforts.
Both Ukraine and Russia have developed innovative and increasingly sophisticated UAV programmes. Kyiv has established its own drone command and has improved the range of its systems, with attacks hundreds of kilometres into Russia. It has hit weapons storage units, oil processing facilities and enemy airstrips near the Arctic Circle, as well as naval vessels in the Caspian Sea.
Kommersant, a Russian business outlet, said Ukraine primarily used its new An-126 Liutyi (Fierce) drones for Tuesday’s strikes on Moscow.
Separate from its attack on the Russian capital, Ukraine also launched more than 100 drones at Russia’s Kursk region, near the Ukrainian border, where Moscow has been reclaiming territory lost after Kyiv’s surprise incursion last summer.
Since the US halted military and intelligence aid to Ukraine, Russia has intensified its offensive in the Kursk region, threatening to encircle thousands of Ukrainian troops.
On Tuesday, Maria Zakharova, from the Russian ministry of foreign affairs, claimed that the large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow was a sign that Russian forces were gaining the upper hand on the battlefield.
