Ukraine launches hundreds of drones in deadly attack targeting Russia, Moscow says
LONDON and MOSCOW -- Ukraine launched overnight more than 550 drones targeting more than a dozen Russian regions, including Moscow, Russian officials said, in a deadly attack that's among the largest-scale aerial assaults aimed at the capital region since the war began.
Ukraine launched some 556 drones that were "intercepted and destroyed" over a nine-hour period ending early on Sunday, the Russian Ministry of Defense said on the Telegram messaging app. At least another 30 drones were intercepted in the two hours after that message, the ministry said in an update.
At least three people were killed and about a dozen others were injured in the Moscow region, local officials said. Reuters reported that the death toll had climbed to four.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that the attacks were a response to Russia's ongoing drone and missile launches aimed at cities around Ukraine. He added that Kyiv's strikes were "entirely justified."
"This time, Ukrainian long-range sanctions reached the Moscow region, and we are clearly telling the Russians: their state must end its war," Zelenskyy said on social media. "Ukrainian drone and missile manufacturers continue their work."
Zelenskyy said Russia had launched in the last week more than 3,170 attack drones, over 1,300 guided aerial bombs and 74 missiles targeting Ukraine.
The Ukrainian drone launches overnight followed a warning issued on Friday by Zelenskyy, who said that Kyiv was "defining targets" for further strikes.
"Ukraine will not allow any of the aggressor’s strikes that take the lives of our people to go unpunished," Zelenskyy said on Friday on social media. "We are entirely justified in our responses against Russia’s oil industry, military production, and those directly responsible for committing war crimes against Ukraine and Ukrainians."
