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Ukraine attacked Moscow on Sunday with at least 34 drones, the biggest drone attack on the Russian capital since the war began in 2022, forcing flights to be diverted from three of the city's major airports and injuring at least one person.
Russian air defenses destroyed another 36 drones over other regions of western Russia in three hours on Sunday, the Defense Ministry said.
“An attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack on the territory of the Russian Federation using aircraft-type drones was foiled,” the ministry said.
Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency said three airports – Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky – diverted at least 36 flights but then resumed operations. One person was injured in the Moscow region.
A woman in her 50s suffered burns to her face, neck and hands after drones caused a fire in her village southeast of Moscow, local governor Andrei Vorobyov said.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said no one was injured in Moscow itself, although Russian channels on the messaging app Telegram spread eyewitness accounts of drone debris setting fire to suburban homes.
Moscow and the surrounding region are one of the largest urban areas in Europe with at least 21 million inhabitants.
Russia, in turn, launched a record 145 drones in one night, Ukraine said. Kiev said air defenses downed 62.
Ukraine also said it had attacked an arsenal in Russia's Bryansk region, reporting that 14 drones had been downed in the region.
Russia has been hit by around 16,000 international sanctions since its massive invasion of Ukraine, but its economy has not come to a standstill. CBC's Briar Stewart explains how the company is staying afloat – with a lot of help from China.
An unverified video on Russian Telegram channels showed drones buzzing across the skyline.
The war in Ukraine begins what some officials say could be its final act after Moscow's forces advanced at the fastest pace since the early days of the war and Donald Trump was re-elected as president of the United States.
Trump, who takes office in January, said during his campaign that he could bring peace to Ukraine within 24 hours but has provided few details on how he would try to do this.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that he spoke with newly-elected US President Donald Trump after his victory. Additionally, multiple outlets have reported that billionaire Elon Musk has also joined the call. Nicholas Drummond, a former British army officer, says Musk could be a “good” influence on Trump.
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Trump to congratulate him on his victory in the presidential election, Tesla CEO and Trump supporter Elon Musk joined the call, according to media reports. Musk owns SpaceX, which provides Starlink satellite communications services critical to Ukraine's defense efforts.
Kiev, itself the target of repeated massive drone attacks by Russian forces, has tried to hit back against its much larger eastern neighbor with drone strikes on oil refineries, airfields and strategic early warning radar stations.
Moscow 'umbrellas' to counter drone attacks
While the 1,000-kilometer front largely resembled the trench and artillery warfare of World War I for much of the war, one of the greatest innovations of the conflict has been drone warfare.
Moscow and Kiev have both been trying to buy and develop new drones, deploy them in innovative ways and find new ways to destroy them – from farmers' shotguns to advanced electronic jamming systems.
Moscow has developed a series of electronic 'umbrellas' over Moscow, with additional sophisticated internal layers above strategic buildings, and a complex web of air defenses that shoot down the drones before they reach the Kremlin in the heart of the Russian capital.
Both sides have turned cheap commercial drones into deadly weapons while ramping up their own production. Soldiers on both sides have reported a deep-seated fear of drones – and both sides have used macabre video footage of fatal drone strikes in their propaganda.
Putin promises a response
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has sought to isolate Moscow from the harsh war, has called Ukrainian drone strikes targeting civilian infrastructure such as nuclear power plants “terrorism” and vowed a response.
Moscow, by far Russia's richest city, has grown enormously during the war, buoyed by the largest defense spending since the Cold War.
There was no sign of panic on Moscow's boulevards on Sunday. Muscovites walked their dogs as the bells of onion-domed Russian Orthodox churches rang through the capital.
