Russian air defenses intercepted 11 Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow in what the Kremlin described as “one of the largest” drone attacks ever against the capital, according to officials.
“Eleven drones were destroyed” over Moscow and its surrounding region, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
“This is one of the largest ever attempts to attack Moscow with drones,” Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
Despite the scale of the attack, Sobyanin confirmed no casualties had been reported and no damage was sustained.
Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP
Ukraine has not confirmed it’s involvement in the attack as of yet.
Newsweek has contacted the Office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.
Russia claims it destroyed 45 drones that Ukraine launched overnight targeting different locations throughout the country, the defense ministry said on August 21.
According to the ministry’s statement, in addition to the 11 drones destroyed over the Moscow region, there were 23 over the Bryansk region near the border, six over the Belgorod region, three over the Kaluga region, and two over the Kursk region.
The drone attacks prompted temporary travel restrictions to be put in place early Wednesday at three Moscow airports.
Vnukovo, Domodedovo, and Zhukovsky airports were all affected from 2:31 a.m. local time to 6:30 a.m., according to the aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia.
Rosaviatsia said on the Telegram that there were no restrictions at Sheremetevo airport, also in the capital.
Alexei Danichev/Sputnik via AP
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise trip to Chechnya, his first visit to the republic in nearly 13 years.
Putin inspected Chechen troops preparing to fight in Ukraine, alongside Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
“As long as we have men like you, we are absolutely, absolutely invincible,” Putin said to Chechen forces.
It comes as Ukraine’s daring incursion into the Kursk enters its third week, as reports indicate all three of the bridges over the Seym River in western Russia have been damaged or destroyed.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s security council, said on Wednesday there will be no peace talks with Ukraine after the surprise Kursk incursion.
“The empty chatter of intermediaries that no one had appointed about the wonderful peace is over. Everyone understands everything now, even though they do not say it out loud,” Medvedev wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“There will be NO MORE NEGOTIATIONS UNTIL THE COMPLETE DEFEAT OF THE ENEMY!”
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Elina Beketova, Democracy Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), told Newsweek: “The primary objectives of the Kursk operation are to protect people in the border regions from Russian artillery strikes, thereby reducing civilian casualties and infrastructure damage.
“Since the beginning of June, more than 2,000 Russian strikes have been launched from Kursk Oblast on Sumy Oblast in Ukraine, using 255 guided aerial bombs and over 100 missiles. Ukraine’s actions comply with international law—it is self-defense. Additionally, Ukrainians are trying to ease pressure on their defensive lines in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions. If the Russian Federation hadn’t started the full-scale invasion, this operation might never have been necessary.”
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