The attack came on the eve of key talks between Ukrainian and US officials about ending the three-year war
Russia has been hit by what appears to be the biggest drone attack in its three-year conflict with Ukraine, with at least one person killed, according to local officials.
The attack came as a Ukrainian delegation was set to meet with America’s top diplomat in Saudi Arabia about ending the war.
Flights have been restricted in and out of four airports, after Russian air defences shot down 337 Ukrainian drones over 10 regions.
Three people were wounded, and a residential building in a Moscow district was damaged and cars set on fire, the governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov said, according to Russian state news agencies.
Ukraine has not commented on the strike. Its air force said it shot down a ballistic Iskander-M missile and 79 of 126 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack.
Russia’s defence ministry said 91 of the drones were shot down over the Moscow region.
A view shows a damaged apartment building in a residential complex following a drone attack in the village of Sapronovo in the Moscow region (Photo: Tatyana Makeyeva/AFP)
Flights have been restricted in and out of Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky to the south of Moscow and Sheremetyevo to the north, according to Russian civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia.
Train traffic through the Domodedovo railway station has also been briefly halted, local officials reported.
Authorities also reported shooting down or jamming drones in the Kaluga, Ryazan, Tula and Vladimir regions adjacent to the Moscow region, as well as the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine.
In the Lipetsk region, just south of the Kaluga and Tula regions, one person was wounded in a drone attack.
The attack comes hours ahead of crunch talks over between US and Ukrainian delegates in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in an effort to move forwards with peace talks.
On his way there US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US officials want to hear what kind of concessions Ukraine is prepared to make, saying his team “want to listen to see how far they’re willing to go and then compare that to what the Russians want”.
“The most important thing that we have to leave here with is a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared to do difficult things, like the Russians are going to have to do difficult things, to end this conflict or at least pause it in some way, shape or form,” he said.
“It’s hard in the aftermath of something like that to even talk about concessions, but that’s the only way this is going to end and prevent more suffering.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Kyiv’s position in Tuesday’s talks with US officials will be “fully constructive” and that he hopes for practical outcomes from the negotiations.
With agencies