Russia experienced the largest attack by drones on its land since it started fighting with Ukraine. At the same time, Moscow also attacked Kyiv and killed two men in a similar way. This shows that the conflict is getting more intense in the air.
Six areas in Russia, including Moscow, were attacked on Wednesday. In the city of Pskov, near Estonia, some planes at an airport were damaged by drones.
Russian officials have not said that anyone got hurt, and they said they stopped almost all of the attacks.
Officials in Kyiv said that Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital with a very big bombardment last night. Serhii Popko, the head of the Military Administration in Kyiv, said on Telegram that the city has not had such a strong attack since spring.
Popko mentioned that multiple groups of drones were heading towards Kyiv from various directions. Afterwards, missiles were launched towards the capital. More than 20 “enemy targets” were destroyed by the air defense forces, he said.
According to the Kyiv City Military Administration, two men, one who was 26 years old and the other who was 36 years old, died. Additionally, three people were hurt by falling debris, but the seriousness of their injuries varied.
In Ukraine, they shot down 28 cruise missiles and destroyed 15 out of 16 drones that were sent overnight, according to Ukraine’s top military leader, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who said this on Wednesday.
Recently, Ukraine has become more confident in attacking important places in Russia from the sky. This is happening even though Ukraine itself is being attacked. This marks a new stage in the conflict, where Kyiv is trying to make Russians in their own country feel less supportive of the war.
After the raids, all four Moscow airports stopped flights for a little while. According to TASS, the Federal Air Transport Agency said that at least 11 passenger flights were sent to different airports, which caused problems. Afterwards, it was reported that the airports started working normally again.
The leader of Bryansk, a region next to Ukraine, said that their air defenses stopped a Ukrainian drone from attacking a TV tower on Wednesday morning. Aleksandr Bogomaz said that a fire had been put out and emergency workers were helping at the location of the supposed attack.
The strikes started soon after the governor of Russia’s Bryansk region said that the Ukrainian military had attacked the village of Klimovo with rockets and caused some deaths.
On Tuesday night, drones attacked an airport in the western city of Pskov, Russia. The airport is used for both civilian and military planes. The governor of the region reported the attacks.
Mikhail Vedernikov shared a video showing a big cloud of smoke coming from behind buildings in a neighborhood where people live. According to the Russian state news agency TASS, four Il-76 airplanes were damaged in Pskov due to drone attacks. According to emergency services, there was a fire that started and both airplanes were caught on fire.
‘We will not make foolish errors,’ a former individual stated. The defense minister of Ukraine has given a response to criticism about their counteroffensive.
There is still intense fighting happening in the ground war, and the movement of troops is slow. Ukraine increased the number of children being taken out of the town of Kupiansk, which is close to the fighting, on Tuesday. This happened because Russian forces were still moving towards the city, causing a lot of damage.
Kupiansk is a town in the northeastern part of Ukraine, far away from where Ukrainian soldiers are fighting in the south. The Ukrainian soldiers are trying to push back the enemy, but it is taking them a long time. The two fighting theaters may show that both sides are trying to distract the enemy troops from their main objectives.
The Ukrainian military says that their forces have moved forward in a part of the southern front, in the direction of the villages of Novodanylivka and Verbove. If the Ukrainians are successful in the Verbove area, they will be able to increase the size of the territory they have gained as they continue to move south towards Tokmak. Currently, the Russians are in control of Tokmak.