Moscow, Russia
Reuters
Russian air defence forces repelled dozens of Ukrainian drones that attacked Moscow and other parts of the country on Tuesday, the defence ministry said.
In two evening posts on Telegram, the defence ministry listed sites where 70 drones were intercepted in various regions including Moscow, central Russia and Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula in the Black Sea annexed by Russia in 2014.
Russia’s aviation authority halted flights at two of Moscow’s airports, Vnukovo and Domodedovo, on Tuesday evening.
The biggest numbers were downed near Russia’s western border with Ukraine – 31 in Kursk province and 14 in Bryansk province, the ministry said. The Bryansk governor said one woman there was killed by a drone.
RUSSIAN MISSILE KILLS THREE, INJURES EIGHT IN UKRAINE’S SUMY, GOVERNOR SAYS
A Russian missile attack on the outskirts of the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Tuesday killed three people, including a six-year-old child, and injured eight others, regional officials said.
The military administration in the border region, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said four of the injured were children, with two of them in serious condition in hospital.
The early evening strike targeted civilian infrastructure in the city’s suburbs, the administration said.
Russian attacks have intensified in the region in recent weeks, including a missile strike on Sumy on Palm Sunday last month which killed 35 people.
Officials began evacuating residents from border villages on Monday after an upsurge in military action on both sides of the border and Russian shelling of settlements.
Russian war bloggers on Monday said Ukrainian forces had launched a new incursion into Russia’s adjacent Kursk region.
– YULIIA DYSA AND RON POPESKI, Reuters
The ministry report cited two Ukrainian drones repelled over Moscow while 11 were intercepted in the regions of Kaluga and Tula about 180 kilometres south of Moscow.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in separate Telegram posts that eight drones targeting the capital were downed.
“Today, throughout the day, Defence Ministry air defence units have been repelling enemy drones,” the Moscow mayor said.
Several Russian media outlets shared videos purportedly showing debris from one of the downed drones in the city of Noginsk, east of the Russian capital.
The drone attacks came days before President Vladimir Putin hosts several world leaders in Moscow to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.
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Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine swapped 205 prisoners of war each in an exchange mediated by the United Arab Emirates, both sides said on Tuesday.
“Today, Ukraine has brought back 205 warriors,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram app, thanking the UAE for their help.
Russia’s human rights ombudsman Tatiana Moskalkova thanked Russia’s defence ministry and other agencies involved.
“For many families, today has become a celebration of reunification – anxiety and uncertainty have given way to the joy of a loved one returning home,” she said.
Ukraine’s prisoners of war affairs organisation said the returned prisoners consisted of 202 enlisted men and three officers from various parts of the military and national guard.
It said today’s swap was the fifth this year and the 64th of the entire war, which has run for more than 38 months.
– With YULIIA DYSA, MAX HUNDER and FILIPP LEBEDEV
