Ukraine Launches Massive Drone Attack On Moscow, Two Airports Closed

Ukrainian attack drone. (Wikimedia Commons/men'smen

JAKARTA - Russian officials and media said Ukraine launched a drone strike on Moscow on Tuesday morning, the largest drone strike wave so far, which has left two airports serving the city closed.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at least 60 drones were destroyed as they approached the city.

"Currently, the roof of a building in Moscow is slightly damaged by the falling debris from the fallen UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle)," Sobyanin said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

In a previous post, he said there were no injuries, according to a preliminary report.

Separately, the Governor of the Ryazan Region, just southeast of Moscow's territory, said air defenses out drone attacks in the region, with no injuries or damage reported.

As a result of the attack, Russian aviation watchdogs said flights were suspended at Zhukovo and Domodedovo airports to ensure air safety following reports of the attack. Two other airports, in the Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod areas, both in eastern Moscow, were also closed.

Moscow and its surrounding region, with a population of at least 21 million, are one of the largest metropolitan areas in Europe, along with Istanbul.

Meanwhile, the Telegram Baza news channel, which is close to the Russian security service, and another Russian telegram news channel, uploaded a video of several housing fires around Moscow that they said were triggered by the attack.

In one video, Baza shows what it calls a burning apartment, a multi-storey residential building in Ramenskoye District, Moscow area, about 50 km (31 miles) southeast of the Kremlin.

Reuters was unable to independently verify fire reports.

Prior to last night's attack, a drone strike in November in Moscow, which was the largest attack in the war at the time, killed at least one civilian and destroyed dozens of houses around the capital.

The attack comes as the United States is pushing for an end to the three-year war Russia began with its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Delegation of Ukraine and the United States plans to hold a meeting in Saudi Arabia to discuss steps to end the war.

Kyiv has often said his attack on Russia was aimed at destroying infrastructure that is key to all Moscow's war efforts, in response to Russia's ongoing bombings in Ukraine.

Both sides denied targeting civilians in the attack, but thousands of them have died in the conflict so far, most of them Ukrainians.