Three people were killed overnight in a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow region, Russian officials have said.
A woman died in a house in Khimki, north of the capital, where a person was trapped under rubble, regional governor Andrei Vorobiev said. A man and a woman were killed in the village of Pogorelki.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 12 people were injured in strikes on a city oil refinery. Russia’s military said 556 drones were intercepted.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes were an “entirely justified” response to deadly Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities.
Earlier this week, a massive Russian drone and missile attack killed 24 people in Kyiv.
In Ukraine, eight people were injured in overnight Russian drone attacks and shelling in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, officials said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory.
In a post on Telegram early on Sunday, Vorobiev wrote that “since three o’clock in the morning, air defence forces have been repelling a large-scale UAV [drone] attack on the capital region”.
He said four people – three men and a woman – were injured in the region, and a number of houses damaged.
A private house was on fire in the village of Subbotino, south-west of Moscow, the governor added.
Moscow Mayor Sobyanin said 12 people were injured when drones hit an entrance to the city’s oil refinery. Three nearby houses were damaged.
Meanwhile, Sheremetyevo – Russia’s busiest airport that serves Moscow – reported drone wreckage on its territory. It said no-one was injured.
“The situation in the passenger terminals is calm. Sheremetyevo Airport is providing stable passenger and aircraft services,” airport authorities said.
Later on Sunday, Zelensky said that Ukraine’s “long-range sanctions have reached the Moscow region”, referring to the latest drone attack.
“We are clearly telling the Russians: their state must end its war,” he wrote in a post on Telegram.
In a statement, Ukraine’s state security service SBU said that – together with Ukraine’s military – it had struck several oil facilities and a semiconductor-making plant in the Moscow region.
It added that a number of air defence systems were hit at the Belbek military airfield in Crimea – Ukraine’s southern peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
Zelensky had earlier pledged to retaliate for recent Russian attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions.
He said on Saturday that this week Ukraine had already destroyed high-value Russian military equipment, including aircraft, a helicopter and a cargo ship. Russian oil facilities had also been attacked, he added.
In recent months, Ukraine’s military has intensified its strikes on key energy facilities across Russia.
Kyiv says they are legitimate targets as they allow Russia to continue its war effort.
Also overnight, Russia carried out more than 30 drone and shelling attacks on four districts of the Dnipropetrovsk region, top local official Oleksandr Hanzha said.
He said eight people were injured, and a number of houses were damaged or destroyed.
Three people were injured in the regional capital of Dnipro, and a number of fires were reported in the city.
On Saturday evening, a woman was injured in a Russian drone attack in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, local officials said.
In its latest update, Ukraine’s air force said that Russia had launched 287 drones since late Saturday.
It said that 279 drones were shot down or intercepted, but there were eight direct hits in seven locations.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory.
By BBC News
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