Russia and Ukraine trade biggest drone attacks of conflict

Dozens of Ukrainian drones target Moscow, while Russia reportedly fires 145 drones at Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine have both launched record drone attacks on each other overnight, with Ukrainian attacks on Moscow temporarily shutting down three of the Russian capital’s airports.

Russia fired 145 drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday – more than in any single nighttime attack so far during their two-and-a-half-year conflict.

“Last night, Russia launched a record 145 Shaheds and other strike drones against Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said on social media, urging Kyiv’s Western allies to do more to help Ukraine’s defence. Kyiv said its air defences downed 62 of the drones.

Russia also said it had downed 34 Ukrainian attack drones targeting Moscow on Sunday, the largest attempted attack on the capital since the start of the offensive in 2022, with Moscow regional Governor Andrei Vorobyov calling the attack “massive”.

Ukrainian strikes forced the temporary closure of three airports, wounded a 52-year-old woman and set two homes on fire in the village of Stanovoye in the Moscow region, officials said.

While the Ukrainian capital Kyiv is regularly targeted by massive Russian drone and missile strikes, attacks on Moscow are much less frequent.

Residents remove debris from a shop in Odesa, Ukraine hit by a Russian drone attack [Nina Liashonok/Reuters]

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defences had downed a total of 70 Ukrainian drones between 04:00 GMT and 07:00 GMT over six regions. It said 34 were downed over the Moscow region and the rest over Bryansk, Orlov, Kaluga, Tula and Kursk.

In the Moscow region, local officials said the drones were downed in the Ramenskoye, Kolomna and Domodedovo districts.

In the previous largest drone attack on or near Moscow in September, a woman was killed in Ramenskoye – the first time someone has been killed in a Ukrainian attack near the capital.

In May 2023, two drones were destroyed near the Kremlin, and in the same year, there were several drone attacks on the Moscow City business district.

The recent drone attacks came after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a pact between Russia and North Korea on Saturday night.

The pact obliges the two countries to provide immediate military aid using “all means” if either is attacked. The agreement marks the strongest link between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War.

Russia says Trump ‘signals are positive’

Russia’s war on Ukraine is entering what some officials say could be its final act after Moscow’s forces have advanced at the fastest pace since the early days of the war and since Donald Trump was recently elected the 47th president of the United States.

The Republican US leader said on the campaign trail that he could end the fighting between Russia and Ukraine within hours and has indicated he will talk directly with Putin – a major break from the approach struck by current US President Joe Biden.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with state media published on Sunday that the “signals are positive” after the re-election of Trump, who served as US president from 2017 to 2021 and who will not be inaugurated until January 20.

“Trump during his election campaign talked about how he perceives everything through deals, that he can make a deal that can lead to peace,” Peskov said.

“At least he’s talking about peace, and not about confrontation. He isn’t talking about his wish to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia – that distinguishes him from the current administration.”

Peskov also warned about Trump’s unpredictability, and said time would tell whether his victory could bring about an end to the Ukraine conflict.

“What will happen next, it’s hard to say,” Peskov said, adding that Trump was “less predictable” than Harris and Biden.

“It’s also less predictable to what extent he will stick to the statements that he made on the campaign trail,” Peskov added.

Putin has demanded that Ukraine withdraw from swaths of its eastern and southern territory as a precondition to peace talks.

Following Trump’s election, Zelenskyy warned that there should be “no concessions” to Putin, saying ceding land or giving in to any of his other hardline demands would only embolden the Kremlin and lead to more aggression.

Zelenskyy has also previously warned that without US aid, Kyiv would lose the conflict.