Russian Air Defense Shoots Fall Ukrainian Drone To Moscow

JAKARTA - Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Russian air defenses shot down two Ukrainian drones heading for Moscow on Thursday.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the report.

Earlier Russian drones and missiles attacked the Ukrainian capital on Thursday morning, with reports of two deaths and 16 injuries.

The attack resulted in fires in apartments and non-residential buildings.

Russia's rising attacks have burdened Ukraine's air defenses in the midst of a war and forced thousands of people to seek bomb shelter overnight.

"Housing buildings, vehicles, warehouse facilities, offices, and non-hunian buildings were burned," said Kyiv military chief administration Tymur Tkachenko, via the Telegram messaging application reported by Reuters, Thursday, July 10.

Russia launched 18 missiles and about 400 drones in an attack that primarily targeted the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy.

There was no comment from Moscow regarding the attack, which came a day after Russia launched a drone in record numbers overnight targeting its smaller neighbor in what Ukraine described as a terror tactic.

"The approach to war has long changed, and in its efforts to destroy our society through terror, Russia has chosen a joint attack," said Ukraine's head of the presidential office, Andriy Yermak.

Russia said its attack was aimed at weakening the Ukrainian military.

Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defense unit destroyed 14 Ukrainian drones overnight, the state news agency RIA reported.

After US President Donald Trump promised earlier this week to send more defense weapons to Kyiv, Washington had delivered artillery shells and rocket artillery missiles moving to Ukraine, two US officials told Reuters on Wednesday.