Almost 150 Ukrainian drones downed overnight over Russia
Russia's air defenses have destroyed 147 incoming Ukrainian drones overnight, including several targeting Moscow, the country's Defense Ministry has said.
In a statement on Tuesday, the ministry said the intercepts occurred across several areas, including Belgorod, Kursk, Bryansk, Voronezh, Tver, Lipetsk, Oryol, Tambov, Tula, and Moscow regions.
In total, 198 drones were intercepted between 8:00pm on Monday and 7:00am on Tuesday, according to the ministry. Officials have not provided any data on the damage or casualties incurred due to the raids.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin confirmed that the Russian capital was targeted by two drones, both of which were downed before reaching their destinations. He added that emergency services are working at the sites where the drone debris fell.
The drone raids led to temporary suspensions at several major airports, including key Moscow hubs. Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency said flights at Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Zhukovsky, Sheremetyevo, Kaluga, Nizhny Novgorod, and Tambov airports were suspended for safety reasons.
Meanwhile, officials in Kursk Region, which borders Ukraine, said that a total of 21 incoming drones had been shot down.
On Tuesday, Rodion Miroshnik, Russia's ambassador-at-large, reported that nearly 70 civilians, including 14 children, had been victimized by Kiev's FPV drone strikes over the past week. 'The armed formations of Ukraine deliberately and intentionally directed drones at civilians and civilian objects,' he told TASS.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has significantly ramped up drone strikes targeting Russia. Moscow has accused Kiev of attempting 'terrorist' attacks on the country's railway infrastructure, which have led to civilian fatalities. According to the Kremlin, the indiscriminate raids are intended to derail direct bilateral talks.
Last week, President Vladimir Putin stated that Russian forces had shot down more than 80,000 aerial targets, most of which are drones, since the escalation of the conflict in 2022.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Russia Today
21 minutes ago
- Russia Today
World on the brink of new arms race
The world risks plunging into a 'new dangerous arms race' as most nuclear powers seek to modernize and expand their arsenals, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has warned in its annual review. The pace of disarmament is slowing as nuclear-armed states launch 'intensive' arsenal modernization programs, the research center said in a paper published on Monday. Russia and the US, which together possess around 90% of all nuclear weapons in the world, are set to see the last remaining bilateral nuclear arms control treaty – the New START – expire in February 2026, SIPRI noted. The agreement limits the number of simultaneously deployed strategic nuclear warheads. Moscow suspended its participation in the treaty in 2023, citing the impracticality of the inspection regime due to deep Western involvement in the Ukraine conflict. However, it maintained that it remained open to dialogue on the issue if the arsenals of Washington's NATO allies were also considered. Washington, meanwhile, insists on including China in any new agreement. According to SIPRI, China possesses the fastest-growing nuclear arsenal in the world and could rival 'either Russia or the USA' in its number of intercontinental ballistic missiles by the end of the decade. The UK and France are also modernizing their nuclear forces, focusing on nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, the report said. Paris additionally aims to develop a new ballistic missile warhead. 'The era of reductions in the number of nuclear weapons in the world, which had lasted since the end of the Cold War, is coming to an end,' said Hans M. Kristensen, Associate Senior Fellow with SIPRI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Program. 'We see a clear trend of growing nuclear arsenals, sharpened nuclear rhetoric, and the abandonment of arms control agreements.' The research institute also listed Israel among the nations 'believed to be modernizing its nuclear arsenal.' While West Jerusalem does not officially acknowledge possessing nuclear weapons, SIPRI pointed to tests of new missile propulsion systems and alleged upgrades at the plutonium production reactor site in Dimona. Israel could have up to 90 nuclear warheads at its disposal, the report stated. The findings come as West Jerusalem conducts air raids against Iranian nuclear and military facilities, claiming the Islamic Republic is nearing the creation of a nuclear bomb. Tehran, which maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful, was not mentioned in the SIPRI report.
Russia Today
an hour ago
- Russia Today
Drone targets Russian trade mission in NATO state
An unidentified drone targeted the Russian trade mission in Sweden in an act of vandalism on Tuesday, Moscow's embassy in Stockholm has said, while accusing Swedish authorities of systematic inaction. Russia's diplomatic mission in Sweden has reportedly been subject to more than a dozen such attacks over the past year. Sometime overnight on Tuesday, a drone flew over the trade mission premises and dropped a bag of paint at its entrance, the embassy said in a statement later in the day. The 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations protects the trade mission just as much as other Russian diplomatic buildings in Sweden, the embassy pointed out. Under the convention, Stockholm has a responsibility to 'ensure the inviolability' of the facilities, it added. The incident follows 'a series of similar recent attacks on the premises of Russia's diplomatic mission in Sweden, threatening the safety of its employees and damaging the property of the mission,' the embassy stressed. Sweden's authorities have once again failed to comply with their international legal obligations. After a drone dropped a glass container full of paint on the Russian Embassy in Stockholm last month, diplomats noted that numerous appeals to the Swedish police had failed to stop the incidents. The building has been attacked at least 15 times since last May, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement following the latest incident, urging Stockholm to 'tame its ultras [radicals].' Russian diplomatic buildings have been subject to frequent acts of vandalism and harassment since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. In February, two pro-Ukraine activists in France were sentenced to eight months of home arrest after they threw three improvised bombs filled with liquid nitrogen at the Russian consulate in Marseilles. Moscow condemned the punishment as far too lenient for an 'attempt to commit a terrorist act.'
Russia Today
3 hours ago
- Russia Today
Russia sanctions would cost US ‘billions'
US President Donald Trump has said he is not ready to introduce tougher sanctions against Russia despite pressure from allies, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Trump expressed concern that additional punitive economic measures would cost his country 'a lot of money.' The American leader has repeatedly said he is weighing new sanctions on Moscow, but has so far stopped short of adopting any. Speaking with reporters at the G7 summit in Alberta, Canada, he said he first wants to see 'whether or not a deal is signed.' 'When I sanction a country that costs the US a lot of money, a tremendous amount of money,' Trump said. 'It's not just, let's sign a document – you're talking about billions and billions of dollars. Sanctions are not that easy. It's not just a one-way street.' Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has advocated massively increasing sanctions in a bill he introduced earlier this year. It includes, among other measures, 500% tariffs on countries that purchase Russian oil and gas, should Moscow refuse to engage in peace negotiations with Ukraine. Graham, who later suggested exceptions for countries that provide military aid to Kiev, described the proposed measures as 'bone-breaking' for Russia. Last week, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that the proposed sanctions could undermine diplomatic efforts, and urged lawmakers to give the Trump administration greater flexibility to negotiate with Moscow and Kiev. Trump told journalists earlier this month that the Senate had prepared 'a very strong bill,' and that Washington would 'use it if it's necessary.' However, the president reportedly asked Senate Republicans to delay putting it to a vote. Senator Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Trump had indicated he was not yet ready to support it. During their latest round of direct negotiations in Istanbul, Russia and Ukraine both put forward proposals to end the conflict. Moscow's plan would require Kiev to accept the loss of five regions which joined Russia in referendums, pull back its troops from those territories, and adhere to neutrality. Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky dismissed that plan as an ultimatum and ruled out territorial concessions or neutrality. He also insisted on a full 30-day ceasefire as a precursor to negotiations – a condition which the Kremlin has rejected. Then President Joe Biden cut most contacts with Moscow in 2022 over the Ukraine conflict and imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian officials and companies. Trump has since criticized Biden for eschewing diplomacy and vowed to negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Moscow has welcomed Trump's initiative, but progress on reaching a settlement has been slow.
