Ukraine launches drone attack on Moscow, shutting down airports

Ukraine launched its largest drone attack on the Russian capital city of Moscow since the war began in 2022, injuring one person and forcing three major airports to divert flights, as Russia fired at Ukraine’s southern region of Odesa.

Moscow’s regional governor Andrei Vorobyov called it a “massive attack,” and said two houses in the village of Stanovoye, 15 miles southeast of the city, had caught fire after the drones fell. He said a 52-year-old woman was in intensive care after she was injured by shrapnel and hospitalized with burns to her face, neck and hands.

Russia’s ministry of defense said it “intercepted and destroyed” 34 drones over Moscow following the latest strikes on the capital.

All three airports have since resumed operations, including Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport, Russia’s busiest airport.

It is not the first time Ukraine has struck the capital, but its largest attack on the city to date comes as the United Kingdom’s defense chief, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, estimated that Russia had suffered its worst ever month for casualties since the start of the two-and-a-half-year war.

In an interview with the BBC on Sunday, Radakin said Russia’s forces suffered an average of about 1,500 dead and injured “every single day” in October, bringing its total losses to 700,000.

He said Russia was having to bear “enormous pain and suffering because of Putin’s ambition,” and that losses came at the expense of “tiny increments of land.”

However, he added there was “no doubt that Russia is making tactical, territorial gains and that is putting pressure on Ukraine.”

Across the border, Ukrainian officials said at least two people were injured and buildings were damaged as Russia launched an overnight attack on the southern region of Odesa.

“The enemy has once again launched a massive attack on our region,” the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Odesa region said on its social media account. “Garages with cars and property were on fire, residential buildings, shops were damaged.”

Regional governors said Sunday that Ukraine also set several non-residential buildings on fire as it launched overnight attacks of its own on Russia’s Kaluga and Bryansk regions, between Moscow and Ukraine’s northern border.

Russia’s defense ministry said it destroyed 14 drones over Bryansk and seven over the Kaluga region overnight, including a further seven over Oryol and six over Kursk, the border region invaded by Ukraine in August.

“Emergency services and firefighters are on the site,” Alexander Bogomaz, governor of the Russian border region of Bryansk, wrote on the Telegram messaging app, without providing further detail.

Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelenskyy also said Thursday that North Korean troops had suffered losses in clashes with Ukraine.

Two weeks ago, the Pentagon confirmed that some 10,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia for training and are presumed to be joining the fight against Ukraine, intensifying their partnership and alarming the United States and its allies.

According to Zelenksyy, there were 11,000 North Korean soldiers in the areas bordering Ukraine and were taking part in “combat against Ukrainian militaries.”

“There are losses, this is a fact,” he said.