Ukraine drone attack shuts Moscow airports, says Russia

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - MOSCOW — Russia says Ukraine has launched an overnight drone attack targeting Moscow for the second night in a row.

All four of the capital's major airports were closed for several hours to ensure safety but later reopened, Russia's aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said on Telegram.

Moscow's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said on social media at least 19 Ukrainian drones had been destroyed before they reached the city "from different directions". He said some of the debris had landed on one of the key highways into the city, but there were no casualties.

Ukraine has not yet commented. But the mayor of Kharkiv said Russia had also carried out drone strikes in the city overnight, as well as in the Kyiv area.

As well as in Moscow, the governors of other Russian cities, including Penza and Voronezh, also said they had been targeted by drones overnight into Tuesday.

Unconfirmed reports by Russian military bloggers suggested windows of an apartment in the south of Moscow were smashed.

It is the second night in a row that Russia has reported a drone attack by Ukraine — on Monday, Russia's defense ministry said it had destroyed 26 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, Kyiv has launched several drone attacks on Moscow. Its biggest attack in March killed three people.

It comes after reports on Monday of fresh attempts by Ukraine to cross into Russia's Kursk region.

Kyiv said it had hit a drone command unit in the Kursk region on Sunday near the Russian village of Tyotkino, according to the Ukrainian general staff.

In April, Moscow said it had regained control of the entire region, nine months after a Ukrainian forces launched a surprise invasion. Kyiv insists it still has soldiers operating across the border.

Also in Kursk, Russian officials reported an electrical substation in the town of Rylsk lost power on Monday after being damaged in an attack by Ukraine.

Two transformers at the substation in Rylsk had been damaged, according to acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexander Khinshtein, in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

He added two teenagers had been injured by shrapnel from the blast.

Multiple Russian military bloggers also reported that Ukrainian forces had attempted to cross into the village, posting images — as yet unverified by the BBC — of vehicles breaking through tank traps on the border.

On Monday, Ukrainian forces fired missiles over the border and crossed minefields in special vehicles, according to the bloggers.

"The enemy blew up bridges with rockets at night and launched an attack with armoured groups in the morning," blogger RVvoenkor said according to Reuters news agency.

"The mine clearance vehicles began to make passages in the minefields, followed by armoured vehicles with troops. There is a heavy battle going on at the border."

In a statement on Monday, Ukraine said: "Nine months after the start of the Kursk operation, Ukraine's Defense Forces maintain a military presence on the territory of Russia's Kursk region."

While there has been no official response from Moscow, some military bloggers have also published maps showing opposing forces attempting to cross the border in two places towards Tyotkino — near where the drone command unit that was hit.

Meanwhile, in Sumy — around 12km across the border from Tyotkino in north-eastern Ukraine — local authorities urged people to evacuate from two settlements, Reuters reported.

Ukraine originally made its surprise incursion into Kursk in August 2024 to create a buffer zone and protect Sumy and surrounding areas, while also hoping to use it as a bargaining chip in future negotiations. — BBC