Russia Says Ukraine Attacked Moscow, Other Cities With Fleet Of Drones; No Major Damage Reported

(RFE/RL) — Russian officials said Ukraine targeted Moscow and other Russian cities with a fleet of at least 24 drones, claiming most were downed by antiaircraft systems.

Ukraine, meanwhile, reported being targeted by at least nine Russian drones overnight on November 26, one day after Russia launched a massive wave of drones against Kyiv and other sites. It was the biggest such attack since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported at least 24 Ukrainian drones that it claimed were downed over Tula, Kaluga, and Bryansk, as well as the Russian capital. No major damage was reported in any of the locations.

“A mass drone attack was attempted overnight,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a post to Telegram.

Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region, wrote on Telegram that three unspecified buildings were damaged, but there were no injuries.

In Tula, south of Moscow, one person was wounded when an intercepted drone hit an apartment building, regional Governor Aleksei Dyumin said, also in a Telegram post.

As of the afternoon of November 26, Ukrainian officials had made no immediate comment on the reported attacks.

The Russian Army also said it had downed two Ukrainian missiles over the Azov Sea that it said were headed for Russia. Russia controls the Ukrainian Azov Sea coast, which fell to Moscow early in its offensive last year.

Local authorities in the affected regions did not report casualties.

Ukraine has upped attacks on Russia since launching its counteroffensive, aiming to hit regions close to fighting zones as well as further inland into Russia, including Moscow.

Flights were delayed or canceled at several of Moscow’s major airports due to the attack, the Kommersant newspaper reported.

Ukrainian officials made no comment on the reported attacks, which came one day after Russia launched its own major drone attack on the Ukrainian capital. Ukrainian officials said more than 70 were brought down or intercepted by air defenses.

Ukraine’s military said on November 26 that it had shot down eight of nine Russian attack drones, which targeted various locations. 

On the battlefield, fighting has focused around the industrial hub of Avdiyivka, which appears almost encircled by Russian forces. Its fall would be a significant loss for Kyiv.

Ukraine, meanwhile, reported Russian attacks in the south and east of the country, saying the situation remains difficult.

Roman Mrochko, head of the military administration in the southern city of Kherson, said two urban districts were shelled, while regional authorities said around a dozen villages were left without electricity due to bad weather and Russian attacks.

Ukraine has been bracing for an expected increase in Russian attacks targeting its energy infrastructure now that winter weather has set in. That would echo Moscow’s campaign last winter that, at times, left millions of Ukrainians in cold and darkness and destroyed critical power facilities.

“Due to bad weather and Russian shelling, a number of settlements in our region were left without electricity,” Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram. “Power supply teams are already working to eliminate the malfunctions,” he added.

Nearly 400 localities are without electricity in Ukraine due to “extremely difficult” weather conditions, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. 

Oleksiy Kuleba, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, warned that the weather is worsening with heavy snowfalls expected in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, and Odesa regions.