Massive drone attack rocks Moscow

Photo: Tatyana Makeyeva Agence France-Presse Russian law enforcement officers inspect a burned-out car in the courtyard of residential buildings after a drone attack in the village of Sofyino, Moscow region, November 10, 2024.

Agence France-Presse In Moscow

Posted at 10:12 p.m.

• Europe

Drone attacks of unprecedented scale targeted Ukraine and the region of the Russian capital, Moscow, on the night of Saturday to Sunday, both sides denounced, despite the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, who reportedly asked him not to provoke an escalation in Ukraine, according to the Washington Post.

They discussed the goal of peace on the European continent and the American president-elect said he hoped to be able to discuss “the resolution of the war in Ukraine soon,” according to anonymous sources in the American daily.

Questioned by AFP, Donald Trump's entourage did not confirm this first telephone conversation between the two men since Mr. Trump won the presidential election on November 5.

While the conflict between kyiv and Moscow is still raging, the Kremlin said it saw “positive signals.” “Trump, during his election campaign, said that he sees all this through agreements. And that he can obtain an agreement that leads to peace,” said Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

“He talks about peace, not confrontation, not a desire to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, which sets him apart from the current administration,” he continued.

Berlin, for its part, announced that Mr. Trump had spoken on Sunday with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The two “expressed their readiness to work together for a return to peace in Europe,” said the chancellor’s spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit.

Donald Trump, who will return to the White House on January 20, has regularly claimed that he could end the war “in one day,” without ever detailing how he would go about it. But that would likely involve an agreement that would require kyiv to cede some territory to Moscow.

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Russia will have to answer for war crimes committed in Ukraine and pay for the destruction caused regardless of the future peace agreement, the head of European Union diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said on Sunday. “Peace, for it to be peace and not just a ceasefire, must be just and lasting,” he stressed.

With Donald Trump's victory, the question arises of the sustainability of American support, which has allowed Ukraine to resist Russian troops since February 2022.

The United States will spend the remaining $6 billion dedicated to Ukraine before Mr. Trump comes to power, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Sunday, warning of the risks associated with stopping American support for kyiv.

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Attack on Moscow

On the ground, the fighting continues.

Air alerts were triggered in several regions of Ukraine, including the capital kyiv, on the night of Sunday to Monday, according to Ukrainian media Suspilne.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it had neutralized 34 drones in the Moscow region on Sunday morning, a record number in the area of ​​the Russian capital since the start of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in 2022.

According to this source, 36 other Ukrainian drones were shot down in two regions bordering Moscow and in three others bordering Ukraine.

The governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobiov, affirmed that the interceptions had taken place in particular over the towns of Ramenskoye and Domodedovo, about forty kilometers southeast of the center of Moscow and close to airports.

According to him, a 52-year-old woman was injured by shrapnel, burned on the face, neck and hands, and two houses were set on fire.

This operation in the suburbs of Moscow comes four days after a massive attack by Russian drones on the Ukrainian capital, targeted almost daily since a month.

On the night of Saturday to Sunday, a new “record” attack by 145 Russian drones targeted Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced on X. The Ukrainian Air Force said 62 of the 145 drones had been neutralized.

Ukrainian authorities have not yet claimed responsibility for the drone strikes targeting Moscow.

Russian advances in the East

On the front, Ukrainian troops are exhausted, suffering from their inferiority in weapons and personnel, and are retreating in multiple sectors in eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops have been advancing more quickly in recent weeks.

Russia claimed control of a new village on Sunday, that of Vovtchenka, in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk (is).

Moreover, thousands of North Korean soldiers are, according to kyiv and the West, deployed in the Russian region of Kursk, where the Ukrainian army has controlled several hundred square kilometers since its surprise operation launched on August 6. kyiv assures that they have already been engaged in combat.

The West, however, refuses to authorize kyiv to strike deep into Russian territory with the weapons it supplies and to shoot down Russian missiles targeting Ukrainian cities, for fear of an escalation.