Ukraine launches its biggest drone attack on Russia since the start of the war

The Armed Forces of Ukraine have carried out their biggest bombing raid on Russia since the war began, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. The agency claims to have shot down 337 drones in this latest wave, although some of the unmanned aircraft struck the capital, Moscow. At least two people have died and 13 others have been injured after drones hit buildings and parking lots. The attack took place hours before a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and a high-level Ukrainian delegation in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) that is considered decisive for the evolution of the conflict. Tuesday’s meeting will be the first face-to-face contact between the governments of both countries since the televised argument between Donald Trump and his number two, J. D. Vance, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the Oval Office on February 28.

In connection with the attack on Tuesday morning, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had shot down 126 drones over Kursk, where a Ukrainian incursion has been ongoing for six months; 91 over the Moscow region and the capital itself; and 38 over the border town of Bryansk. The rest were spread across several provinces of European Russia. The last major Ukrainian attack against Russia took place on November 1, when the Russian army said it had shot down 158 drones.

The Ukrainian army has taken this punitive action after the Kremlin stepped up its attacks following the European rearmament summit. In one of the latest Russian air strikes — carried out last Friday with a combination of ballistic missiles and drones — at least 11 people were killed, including five children. However, the Russian Foreign Ministry has linked the Ukrainian attack to the Moscow visit of the Secretary-General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Feridun Sinirlioğlu.

“This is not the first time that a high-level foreign delegation’s visit to Moscow is accompanied by a Ukrainian drone attack. Last night, the Kyiv regime [the elected Ukrainian government, recognized by Moscow in 2019] launched drones at the capital, which is expected to host the OSCE secretary general,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. “Notably, the OSCE is the organization that Zelenskiy’s sponsors have turned into a talking shop, making it unable to serve its initial goal of ensuring security and cooperation in Europe.”

“The most massed attack of enemy drones against Moscow was thwarted,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on his Telegram channel. “I thank the Air Defense of the Aerospace Force of the Defense Ministry for the excellent job.”

The south-east of the Moscow region was the hardest hit by the attack, particularly the districts of Domodedovo, where one of the region’s three major airports is located, and Ramensky.

A drone strike in the parking lot of an industrial complex in Domodedovo killed a 38-year-old security guard, married with a son and daughter, and injured two other men. Another victim, a 50-year-old man, did not survive after being admitted to hospital. “The doctors fought for his life until the end: they resuscitated his heart four times,” lamented the governor of the Moscow region, Andrey Vorobyov.

Two more victims were admitted to the district medical center: a 43-year-old woman with an abdominal wound, intestinal damage and a laceration to the chest, and a 44-year-old man with an abdominal wound, an open shoulder fracture and a shrapnel wound to the calf. The families of the deceased will receive compensation of one million rubles, approximately $11,430.

The device that fell in the parking lot of Domodedovo caused a fire that damaged about two dozen vehicles. In addition, another drone fell on the railway tracks, forcing the interruption of its service.

In Ramenski, authorities evacuated a residential building after it was hit by a drone. The device destroyed several apartments on the upper floors of the block.

The Telegram channel Shot, which is linked to the Russian security forces, posted images of some of the apartments destroyed. One of the victims, Vladislav, was wounded in the hands when the windows of his home were blown out. “The enemy drones that attacked the Moscow region were equipped with shock-absorbing elements: metal bearings with a diameter of seven millimeters,” Shot claimed.

Ukraine’s attack was launched with groups of six to 12 drones to overload Russian anti-aircraft defenses, according to Shot’s sources. The wave included long-range models of the Rubaka, Lyuti and PD-2 types, the latter known as the “People’s Drone.”

At the same time, on the border with Ukraine, Russian anti-aircraft guns shot down more than 100 drones over the disputed Kursk region. There, the chief of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, visited his troops on the ground Tuesday to celebrate “their successes in fulfilling their assigned tasks” and to give them instructions to continue their push against Ukrainian forces. The Russian army has managed to recover two thirds of the territory lost half a year ago and the situation of the Ukrainian troops, threatened by a possible encirclement, is increasingly precarious.

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