Russian attacks reportedly killed 10 people and injured eight in Ukraine’s Kharkiv.
Ukraine launched more than 620 drones at Moscow overnight in what appeared to be its largest such attack in years, while Russian attacks killed 10 people in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, according to Russian and Ukrainian officials.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 180 of the 620 drones heading towards Moscow were “destroyed” by Russian defences over the capital region between Monday evening and 5am (02:00 GMT) on Tuesday. He said 17 more drones were shot down en route to the capital later.
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Russia’s state-run news agency TASS described the barrage as the largest drone attack on Moscow in the past two years.
In the Moscow region that surrounds but does not include the Russian capital, three people were wounded, said Governor Andrey Vorobyov.
He said the “most serious consequences” were reported in the town of Pavlovsky Posad in Moscow oblast, where a house burned down. Several more homes and a guesthouse were damaged in Bogorodsky district, he added.
A warehouse east of Moscow belonging to e-commerce giant Wildberries was also damaged in Tuesday’s drone assault. In a statement, the company said its logistics complex sustained “minor damage” after “debris hit the wall of the building”.
Ukraine has struck multiple Wildberries warehouses in recent weeks, saying the company supplies components for Russian drones.
Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova, reporting from Moscow, said Ukraine’s latest attacks “indicate a strategic escalation in long-range drone warfare, bringing the war deeper into Russian territory”. The attacks are “straining Russia’s air defences, disrupting internal logistics and putting pressure on Russia’s economy”, she added.
Ten killed in Kharkiv
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force reported shooting down or suppressing 111 of 147 “enemy” drones overnight.
Kharkiv’s regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said preliminary information indicated 10 people were killed and at least 18 injured by a Russian attack on the Pechenihy settlement. He said Russian forces used two Banderol missiles – small, jet-powered cruise missiles – to target the settlement.
Ukraine’s President Volodmyr Zelenskyy said the “brutal attack” occurred in a residential area and pledged that Ukraine would “definitely respond”.
“It is equally important that our partners also complement our just kinetic responses with their own actions to put pressure on Russia and support Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
Al Jazeera’s Audrey MacAlpine, reporting from Kyiv, said Russia has increasingly used Banderol missiles in recent months, making cities and towns in their target zone “increasingly unlivable”.
Further south in the Kharkiv region, five others, including a nine-year-old boy, were injured in the city of Izyum, said Syniehubov.
Elsewhere, Russian drones sparked fires and damaged buildings in Kyiv region’s Brovary city, including an office building and warehouses, said Mayor Ihor Sapozhko.
With front-line fighting at a near standstill and talks frozen, Ukraine and Russia have significantly stepped up long-distance attacks, pushing the civilian death toll to its highest levels since the war’s first months in 2022.
In July alone, 437 civilians were killed in Ukraine, the highest monthly toll since May 2022, according to a United Nations tally.
Russian authorities reported 79 civilians killed in Ukrainian attacks in July, up from the previous month.