Moscow:

Ukraine unleashed more than 140 drones on Russia overnight, officials said Tuesday, killing a woman near Moscow, grounding flights and setting off air defences in several parts of the country.

Russia’s ministry of defence said in a statement it had shot down 144 Ukrainian drones overnight — “72 UAVs over Bryansk region, 20 over Moscow region, 14 over Kursk region, 13 over Tula region”, and 25 more over five other parts of the country.

Moscow regional governor Andrey Vorobyov said in a Telegram post that a 46-year-old woman had been killed and several people wounded in the strikes.

But an earlier statement in which he reported the death of a 9-year-old child was still “not confirmed”, he added.

As a result of the attack, four airports servicing Moscow — including major hubs Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo — had cancelled or delayed flights on Tuesday morning, according to state media.

In Bryansk, which borders Ukraine, “the enemy carried out a massive terrorist attack”, regional Governor Aleksandr Bogomaz said on Telegram, adding “there were no casualties or damage, all attacks were repelled”.

Ukraine and Russia routinely carry out nighttime drone attacks on each other’s territory.

Advances in east

The latest wave of drones came as Moscow continued to claim incremental gains in Ukraine’s east more than 30 months into its offensive, and as Kyiv’s forces pressed their incursion into Russia’s region of Kursk.

Russia on Monday said its forces had captured another Ukrainian village, Memryk, seen as a stepping stone to the Kyiv-held logistics hub of Pokrovsk some 20 kilometres (12 miles) away.

Pokrovsk lies on the intersection of a key road that supplies Ukrainian troops and towns across the eastern front and has long been a target for Moscow’s army.

Kyiv had launched its Kursk offensive on August 6 aiming to force Russia to redeploy troops pressing forward in the east, but Moscow has appeared to intensify its attacks there.

Moscow has also kept up its own aerial attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, including on key energy infrastructure ahead of winter.

Three Russian drones were shot down above Ukraine’s Sumy overnight, the regional military administration said early Tuesday, while air defences were also activated around Kyiv.

The military administration in the capital later said there were “no consequences after the Russian UAV attack”.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk condemned Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities on Monday.

Ukraine’s population was enduring “ongoing attacks by the Russian Federation striking civilian facilities like hospitals, schools and supermarkets, and repeated waves of targeting of energy infrastructure”, Turk told the UN Human Rights Council.

“I fear for Ukrainians this coming winter,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A view of a damaged bridge over the Seym river in the Glushkovo district, following a Ukrainian strike in the Kursk region, Russia, in this still image taken from a social media video released on August 16, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Ukraine had used Western rockets, likely U.S.-made HIMARS, to destroy a bridge over the Seym river in the Kursk region, killing volunteers trying to evacuate civilians.

“For the first time, the Kursk region was hit by Western-made rocket launchers, probably American HIMARS,” Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said late on Friday (August 16, 2024) on the Telegram messaging app.

“As a result of the attack on the bridge over the Seym River in the Glushkovo district, it was completely destroyed, and volunteers who were assisting the evacuated civilian population were killed.”

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Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Friday that Kyiv’s forces were advancing between 1 and 3 km in some areas in the Kursk region, 11 days since beginning an incursion into Russia.

Kyiv has claimed to have taken control of 82 settlements over an area of 1,150 sq. km. in the region since Aug. 6.

Reuters could not independently verify either side’s battlefield accounts.

Russia has accused the West of supporting and encouraging Ukraine’s first ground offensive on Russian territory and said Kyiv’s “terrorist invasion” would not change the course of the war.

The U.S., which has said it cannot allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to win the war he launched in February 2022, so far deems the surprise incursion a protective move that justifies the use of U.S. weaponry, officials in Washington said.

Russia kept up its assault on Ukraine Saturday even as Ukrainian forces pushed into Russia’s Kursk border region.

A Russian missile sparked a blaze in the city of Sumy that injured two people and also damaged cars and nearby buildings, said Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. It said that the hit had involved an Iskander-K cruise missile and an aerial bomb.

Ukraine’s air force also said it had shot down 14 Russian drones overnight, including over the Kyiv region.

Meanwhile, fighting continued in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been deployed since Aug. 6 in a bid to divert the Kremlin’s military focus away from the front line in Ukraine.