Photo: Genya Savilov Agence France-Presse A Ukrainian drone, August 23, 2024
Agence France-Presse in Moscow
Published at 10:59 am
- Europe
Russia said Sunday it had foiled “massive” Ukrainian drone attacks overnight targeting 14 of its regions and the capital Moscow, a few days after large-scale strikes by the Russian army against Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
Ukraine regularly explains that these attempted strikes on Russian soil against military targets or sites helping Russian forces are intended to disrupt the logistics of Moscow’s army, in retaliation for the daily attacks that its cities and population have been suffering since February 2022.
“It is absolutely justified for Ukrainians to respond to Russian terror with all necessary means to put an end to it,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Facebook on Sunday.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, its air defenses shot down a total of 158 Ukrainian explosive drones over 14 regions, in addition to Moscow, during the night from Saturday to Sunday, the vast majority of them in regions bordering Ukraine.
Two devices were intercepted over Moscow, the capital located more than 500 kilometers from the border between the two countries, according to the source.
The fire caused earlier Sunday, according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, by the fall of “a downed drone” at the Kapotnya oil refinery in southeastern Moscow, is “under control,” the Ministry of Emergency Situations announced.
This is not the first time that Moscow — and its region — have been targeted by Ukrainian attacks, even if these remain rare.
On August 21, it suffered “one of the most significant” attacks from Ukraine, according to Sergei Sobyanin, a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During the summer of 2023, devices were destroyed above the capital’s business district, and in May 2023, two aircraft suffered the same fate at the Kremlin, in the heart of Moscow.
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“Difficult” situation near Pokrovsk
In total, around ten Russian regions were targeted during the night by the barrage of Ukrainian explosive drones.
“Our defenders are repelling an attempted massive attack by drones on the territory of the Bryansk region,” the governor of the region, Alexander Bogomaz, reported.
The mass drone attack comes days after Ukraine’s energy infrastructure was targeted by more than 200 Russian drones and missiles, in one of the largest such attacks since Russia began its offensive more than two and a half years ago.
It’s also been nearly a month since Ukraine launched a major offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, taking control of 100 towns according to Kiev, while Russian troops continue their push into eastern Ukraine.
In this area, the Russian army is pushing Ukrainian forces back toward Pokrovsk, a major logistics hub for Kiev and a priority target for the forces sent by the Kremlin.
The latter claimed responsibility for taking the town on Sunday. from Ptitchié, about twenty kilometers from Pokrovsk, in addition to the conquest of Viïmka, near Siversk.
The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandr Syrsky, admitted on Sunday that the situation around Pokrovsk was “difficult”, assuring that Russian troops had “a numerical and (in terms) weapons advantage”.
A Russian bombing left at least three dead and nine wounded in the region, near Kurakhove, indicated the regional governor, Vadym Filachkin.
Kharkiv hit
Further north, the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleg Synegoubov, indicated that a Russian strike in Kharkiv had left, according to a latest report, at least 41 wounded, including five children.
The Palais des Sports, a post office and a shopping centre were notably affected, according to the official.
Volodymyr Zelensky quickly denounced on his social networks a bombing aimed at “terrorizing” the civilian population, calling again on his Western allies to “give Ukraine everything it needs to defend itself.”
The Ukrainian president tirelessly calls for more long-range missiles that can strike deep into Russian territory and thus limit the daily attacks by Moscow’s army against Ukraine’s cities and energy infrastructure.