Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow resume hours after CIA director's visit, mayor says
LONDON -- Ukraine resumed drone attacks on Moscow overnight into Wednesday morning, the city's Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said, hours after the departure of the plane that carried CIA Director John Ratcliffe to Moscow for an unannounced visit on Tuesday morning.
Ukraine agreed to a U.S. request not to launch drone or missile strikes against Moscow during Ratcliffe's visit, a Ukrainian official told ABC News on Tuesday.
At least 10 drones were shot down while flying toward Moscow, Sobyanin said in a post to Telegram in the early hours of Wednesday morning. "Emergency services specialists are working at the crash site of the debris," the mayor said.
Russia's federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, reported temporary flight restrictions at three of Moscow's four international airports -- Domodedovo, Zhukovsky and Vnukovo -- amid the overnight attacks. Ratcliffe's plane landed at Vnukovo on Tuesday morning and departed hours later, according to Flightradar24.
Flight restrictions were also introduced at airports in Kaluga, Tambov, Penza, Saratov, Saransk, Cheboksary, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan and Yaroslavl, Rosaviatsiya said in posts to Telegram.
The drones intercepted over Moscow were among the 426 Ukrainian craft claimed shot down overnight by the Russian Defense Ministry. Drones were intercepted over 15 Russian regions and occupied Crimea, the ministry said in a post to Telegram.
Among the targets hit was a Wildberries e-commerce facility in the city of Kotovsk in the Tambov region. Wildberries released a statement confirming the latest attack and said that all new shipments to the affected center had been suspended.
Local Gov. Yevgeny Pervyshov said in a post to Telegram that the strikes "caused a fire at the Wildberries logistics center. The fire covered an area of more than 100,000 square meters.
Elsewhere, Russian media reports indicated an attack on a major oil refinery in the Nizhny Novgorod region, in the city of Kstovoa.
Regional Gov. Gleb Nikitin said in a post to Telegram that local defenses repelled an attack consisting of more than 40 drones.
"One industrial facility, several residential buildings, and cars sustained damage. Specialists are working at the site where debris fell, and efforts are underway to mitigate the consequences of the incident," Nikitin wrote.
The Ukrainian defense company Fire Point -- which produces drones and cruise missiles -- said in a post to Telegram that its munitions were used to attack both the Wildberries facility in Tambov and the oil refinery in Nizhny Novgorod.
Ukraine's General Staff also confirmed the attack on the refinery in Kstovoa, which it said is operated by the Lukoil corporation and "is involved in supplying the Russian Armed Forces."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post to social media on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces "targeted 16 facilities in Russia" over the previous 24 hours, including oil facilities, airfields and a missile unit.
"The war must return to where it came from," he wrote. "Ukraine is responding to Russian attacks, and doing so in a way that ensures the cost of the war for the aggressor will inevitably increase. We are effectively reducing Russia's potential for aggression."
In Crimea, Sevastopol Gov. Mikhail Razvozhayev said that three incoming Ukrainian FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles were shot down over the Black Sea.
Local officials reported that drone attacks elsewhere in Russia killed two people and injured nine others. Both of those killed died when a drone crashed into a home in the Lipetsk region, according to local officials. Injuries were reported in Lipetsk, Belgorod, Voronezh and Tula, local authorities said.
Ukraine's air force meanwhile, said Russia launched 162 drones into the country overnight and into Wednesday morning, of which 134 were intercepted or otherwise suppressed. The air force reported confirmed hits by enemy drones in 18 locations.
Ukraine's State Emergency Service said in posts to Telegram that a woman and a 4-year-old girl were killed in a Russian attack in the northern Chernihiv region, with a 14-year-old girl also injured.
The SES also reported Russian attacks and subsequent fires in the Sumy and Kherson regions, though said no casualties were reported in either location.
ABC News' Oleksiy Pshemyskiy and Tom Soufi Burridge contributed to this report.
