Extract from ABC News
A house burns in the Russian village of Subbotino after it was struck by a Ukrainian drone on Sunday. (Reuters: Handout/Andrei Vorobyov)
In short:
Ukraine has launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia in a 24-hour period, killing four people in the Moscow and Belgorod regions.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attacks were justified in response to Russian aggression, two days after Russian strikes on Kyiv killed 24.
What's next?
Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on targets deep inside Russia in recent weeks, aiming to knock out oil refineries, depots and pipelines, as both sides cool on the prospect of renewed peace talks.
Ukraine has carried out its largest overnight drone attack on Russia in more than a year, launching more than 1,000 drones at its larger neighbour in a wave of strikes that has killed four people, including three in the Moscow region.
One of the three killed in the Russian capital was an Indian worker, according to the Indian embassy in Russia. Three other Indian workers were injured in that attack.
The fourth death occurred in the Belgorod region bordering north-eastern Ukraine, local authorities said.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had vowed retribution on Friday after Russia carried out its heaviest drone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, over a two-day period, since it invaded Ukraine more than four years ago.
Twenty-four people, including three children, died in a Russian missile strike on an apartment building as part of that wave of attacks.
Confirming Sunday's drone attacks on Russia, Mr Zelenskyy posted a video on X of a drone in flight, columns of black smoke and fire crews trying to extinguish the flames.
"Our responses to Russia's prolongation of the war and its attacks on our cities and communities are entirely justified,"Mr Zelenskyy said.
He added that Ukraine was able to strike targets more than 500 kilometres from the border despite dense Russian air defences around Moscow.
"We are clearly telling the Russians: their state must end its war," he said.
Russia's foreign ministry accused Kyiv of targeting civilians.
"To the sound of Eurovision songs, the Kyiv regime, financed by the EU, carried out yet another mass terrorist attack," the TASS news agency cited the ministry's spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, as saying.
Both sides in the conflict deny deliberately targeting civilians.
Long-range attacks stepped up
Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on targets deep inside Russia in recent weeks, aiming to knock out oil refineries, depots and pipelines, as both sides seek to degrade each other's infrastructure.
TASS cited Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin as saying air defences had destroyed 81 drones headed for Moscow since midnight, making it also the largest attack on the capital in more than a year.
Mr Sobyanin said in addition to the three deaths, 12 people in total were wounded in the attacks on the capital, mostly near the entrance to Moscow's oil refinery.
The "technology" of the refinery was not damaged, he added.
Residents of Krasnogorsk, in the Moscow region, survey damage caused by a Ukrainian drone. (Reuters: Stringer)
The country's largest airport — Moscow's Sheremetyevo — said drone debris had also fallen on its premises without causing any damage.
Ukraine's security service, the SBU, also said on Sunday that it had hit an oil refinery and two oil-pumping stations in the region.
"Strikes on defense industry facilities, military infrastructure and oil logistics sites reduce the enemy's ability to continue its war against Ukraine. These attacks show that even the heavily protected Moscow region is not safe," the SBU said on Telegram.
Both Ukraine and Russia have cooled on the prospect of renewed peace talks in recent weeks, with both sides sceptical of calls for US-brokered negotiations, and Russia rejecting the notion of the EU as a possible alternative mediator.
Reuters
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