Ukraine hits Moscow in major drone attack, Russia says

Ukraine hit Moscow on Wednesday in what Russia described as one of its largest drone attacks in the war, though Russia claimed all of the explosive unmanned vehicles were shot down.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said that overnight into Wednesday, its forces destroyed a total of 45 drones launched into Russia.

Eleven of those drones were taken out by air defenses over the region of Moscow, and three of them around the neighboring province of Kaluga Oblast, according to Russia.

The rest were downed by air defenses in regions that border Ukraine, including Kursk, where Ukraine is pushing forward in a major offensive that began Aug. 6.

Ukraine has targeted Moscow with long-range drones before, and Russia accused Ukraine of being behind an attack on the Kremlin last year that came amid a Ukrainian campaign to damage Russia’s war efforts.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in a Telegram post that Wednesday’s operation was “one of the largest attempts to attack Moscow with drones ever.”

Ukrainian officials have not publicly commented on the drone attack and have typically refrained from mentioning strikes on Russian territory.

Ukraine’s armed forces said Wednesday that Russia launched a wave of drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian territory that were shot down.

The attack around Moscow comes as Ukraine is advancing into Kursk, taking close to 500 square miles of territory and more than 90 settlements in the Russian region.

Russia is also making its own advances in eastern Ukraine, putting pressure on the towns of Toretsk and Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region.