Russia has announced that it has thwarted a significant Ukrainian aerial attack by shooting down at least 158 drones across 15 regions, including two over the capital, Moscow. The latest report from the Russian Ministry of Defense on Sunday indicates that 46 drones were intercepted over the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have been active in recent weeks, marking the largest incursion into Russian territory since World War II. An additional 34 drones were shot down over the Bryansk region, 28 over the Voronezh region, and 14 over the Belgorod region, all of which border Ukraine.
Moscow’s Mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, reported that falling debris from one of the drones shot down over the city caused a fire at an oil facility, though there were no reports of injuries. In the Belgorod region, which is also near Ukraine, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov stated that nine individuals were injured in the Ukrainian missile attacks, eight of whom were in the regional capital, also named Belgorod.
Hours after the Ukrainian drone strikes, Russian forces launched another wave of attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Ukrainian officials reported that at least 10 Russian missiles struck various locations in Kharkiv, including a shopping center, injuring at least 44 people, including five children. Rescue workers and volunteers assisted wounded civilians to ambulances as others sought refuge in a metro station.
Ukrainian drone attacks have pushed the fight far from the front lines into the heart of Russia. “It is entirely justified for Ukrainians to respond to Russian terror with all necessary means to stop it,” wrote President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Facebook.
Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has intensified its airstrikes on Russian territory, targeting refineries and oil terminals in an effort to hinder Kremlin operations. Solomiya Khoma from the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation explained that Kyiv’s recent expansion of attacks on Russian territory is a result of the country employing its own unmanned aerial vehicles since the start of the year.
Khoma added that Ukraine will continue to utilize its own capabilities, as well as all its missiles and drones, to conduct these strikes. “By the end of this year, we will also see an escalation of such attacks on Russian territories,” she stated.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Sunday that it has gained control over the towns of Pivnichne and Vyimka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, though this claim could not be independently verified. The intensity of fighting has escalated in this critical phase of the conflict, with Russia pressing its offensive in eastern Ukraine while attempting to repel Ukrainian forces that broke through the western border in a surprise incursion on August 6.
Last week, Russia intensified its airstrikes against Ukraine with some of the most powerful attacks of the war, targeting energy facilities as part of a campaign of drone and missile strikes that have killed thousands of civilians and soldiers since the conflict began in February 2022. Ukraine has been pressing the United States and other allies for permission to use more powerful Western-supplied weapons to inflict greater damage within Russia and weaken Moscow’s ability to attack Ukraine.