A massive overnight drone barrage put Moscow on alert as Ukraine intensified its long-range campaign ahead of a pivotal NATO summit in Turkey where the war is expected to dominate the agenda.
Ukraine launched more than 400 drones toward Russia’s capital, according to Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin, highlighting how the more than four-year conflict is increasingly being felt far from the front line. Russian border regions have repeatedly come under attack, and Moscow has faced a growing number of drone incidents.
Sobyanin said air defences intercepted the bulk of the incoming aircraft, with most drones “neutralised by air defence forces at distant approaches.”
He added that 36 “enemy UAVs were destroyed on approach to Moscow.”
Elsewhere, acting Belgorod regional governor Aleksandr Shuvaev reported several Ukrainian missile strikes on Belgorod city in Russia’s south-west and the surrounding district, saying one person was killed.
The latest exchanges follow a deadly day in Ukraine, where Russian strikes killed 30 people yesterday.
In the wake of those attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed for tougher action from allies as leaders prepared to meet in Ankara.
“It is critically important that the world – first and foremost the United States and our European partners — come out of the NATO Summit in Ankara with strong decisions in support of our air defence,” he posted on Facebook.
Both Russia and Ukraine have escalated long-range operations in recent months, with each side frequently announcing drone raids and missile launches striking deep into territory beyond the battlefields.
US President Donald Trump said yesterday that a resolution to the war is “getting closer than people realise” and that he plans to address Ukraine in talks at the NATO summit.
Mr Trump’s comments came after weekend conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mr Zelensky.
He did not provide any specific basis for his belief that an end to the conflict was approaching.
