Russia has seen the biggest drone assault on its territory since it launched its war on Ukraine, while Moscow killed two men in a near-simultaneous bombardment on Kyiv as the aerial intensity of the conflict ratcheted up.
Six Russian regions including Moscow came under attack early Wednesday, while in the city of Pskov, near the Estonian border, several transport planes were reportedly damaged when drones targeted an airport.
Russian officials haven’t reported any casualties, and claimed to have thwarted almost all of the strikes.
They claimed Russian air defense forces also shot down a Ukrainian missile over eastern Crimea and at least one drone over the Bryansk region in western Russia on Wednesday.
Oleg Kryuchkov, adviser for the Russia-appointed head of Crimea, said fragments of the missile that fell in eastern Crimea set the grass in the field on fire, but didn’t provide any additional details about the missile.
Kyiv officials meanwhile said Russia hit the Ukrainian capital with a “massive” bombardment overnight. “Kyiv has not experienced such a powerful attack since spring,” Serhii Popko, the head of the city’s military administration, said on Telegram.
Popko said several groups of drones were traveling towards Kyiv “from different directions” and later missiles were launched towards the capital. More than 20 “enemy targets” were destroyed by air defense forces, he added.
Two people were killed — men ages 26 and 36 — and three people sustained injuries of varying severity from falling debris, according to the Kyiv city military administration.
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