Russia announced today that Ukraine carried out a massive air attack on its territory overnight, shooting down at least 287 drones over a number of Russian regions, including the capital Moscow, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced that at least 40 unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed over the Moscow region, which - together with the capital itself - has a population of over 22 million people.
The extent of the damage will still be assessed, but flights to all major Moscow airports have been diverted, Reuters explains.
All airports in the Russian capital have been restricted for landing and take-off of aircraft. As a result, the schedules of a number of airlines have been disrupted. A drone alert has been declared in a number of other places in the Russian Federation, including the Caucasian republics of Chechnya, North Ossetia and Dagestan.
Ukrainian naval drones hit a tanker used to trade Russian oil yesterday as it sailed in Ukraine's exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea towards the Russian port of Novorossiysk, the world agency recalls.
The attack is the third such attack in two weeks against a ship from Russia's so-called "shadow fleet", which Kiev says helps Moscow export significant amounts of oil to finance the war in Ukraine, bypassing Western sanctions.
The tanker "Dashan" was sailing at maximum speed with its transponders turned off when powerful explosions shook its stern, causing severe damage to the vessel, an official from the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) said. The official did not say whether there were any casualties or injuries in the attack. The strike on the tanker "Dashan", which is under sanctions by the European Union and Britain and is sailing without a country of registration, was confirmed by three maritime security agencies, Reuters reported.