Ukrainian drones target Moscow as foreign leaders arrive for Red Square parade
Russian air defences repelled an attack by nine drones close to the country’s capital, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
Attacks by Ukrainian long-range drones caused flight disruption at Moscow’s main airports for a third consecutive day on Wednesday, the authorities said.
The attacks come as Russia prepares to receive the Chinese president and other foreign leaders for the annual Victory Day military parade in Red Square.
Russian flag carrier Aeroflot cancelled more than 100 flights to and from Moscow, while more than 140 flights were delayed as planes were repeatedly grounded, flight data suggested, because of what officials described as the Ukrainian drone threat and amid heightened security measures around the Victory Day events.
Russian air defences repelled an attack by nine drones close to the country’s capital, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
Although Ukrainian drones have targeted Moscow in the past, the sustained attacks appeared designed to disrupt preparations for the 80th anniversary celebrations in Moscow marking victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War — Russia’s biggest secular holiday of the year.
The repeated assaults could unnerve Russians, who have been told by President Vladimir Putin that the more-than-three-year war with Ukraine is going well, as well as potentially embarrass him in front of his illustrious guests.
Security is expected to be tight at Friday’s centrepiece parade. Foreign dignitaries, including Chinese president Xi Jinping and Brazilian
president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, were due to arrive on Wednesday.
Russia plans a unilateral 72-hour ceasefire to coincide with the celebrations in Moscow. In March, the United States proposed a 30-day truce in the war, which Ukraine accepted, but the Kremlin has held out for ceasefire terms more to its liking.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said last weekend that his country could not provide security assurances to foreign officials planning to visit the Moscow events. Russia could stage provocations and later attempt to blame Ukraine, he said.
“Our position is very simple: we cannot take responsibility for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation,” he said.
“They are the ones providing your security, and we will not be offering any guarantees.”
Mr Zelensky said that he had instructed Ukraine’s foreign ministry to advise foreign delegations against visiting Russia during this period.
Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which border Russia and its Kaliningrad exclave, plan to close their airspace to the planes carrying Serbia’s and Slovakia’s leaders to Moscow later this week for the celebrations out of safety concerns, officials there said.
“Who could deny that in such a quite active cyber background … that somebody will not use this as a possible provocation to create problems and risks for the flight of these people through the Republic of Lithuania,” Lithuanian president Gitanas Nauseda said on Wednesday.
Flight restrictions across Russia due to Ukrainian drone threats, including temporary closures at airports in Moscow, St Petersburg, Sochi and elsewhere, affected at least 350 flights and disrupted at least 60,000 passengers, the Russian Tour Operators Association said.
Russian public holidays in early May, including the days around Victory Day, are a popular time for many Russians to go on holiday and travel abroad.
Mr Xi’s visit to Russia will be his third since the Kremlin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24 2022.
Mr Xi last visited Moscow in March 2023 on a trip that offered an important political boost to Mr Putin just days after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader on charges of alleged involvement in abductions of thousands of children from Ukraine.
The Kremlin announced on Tuesday that Mr Putin would travel to China at the end of August and beginning of September.
Since Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbour, Moscow has drawn closer to China as western countries have sought to isolate Mr Putin
diplomatically. Russia has become increasingly dependent economically on China because of western sanctions.
Meanwhile, Russia launched a ballistic missile and a barrage of drones at Ukraine’s capital before dawn on Wednesday, killing at least two people in apartment buildings, Ukrainian officials said.
Eight people were also wounded in the attack, including four children, the Kyiv City Military Administration said in a post on Telegram.
Russian planes also dropped two glide bombs on a village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, killing two women, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said.
Russia launched a total of four ballistic missiles and 142 drones at Ukraine overnight, Mr Zelensky said.
At least one of the ballistic missiles and 28 drones were recorded in Kyiv’s airspace, authorities said. Air defence forces shot down the missile and 11 drones.
A five-storey residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district in the centre of the capital was hit by drone debris, sparking a fire in several apartments where the victims were found, he said. Four people, including three children, were admitted to hospital, while others received treatment on site.
In the Sviatoshynskyi district, a fire broke out across multiple upper-floor apartments of a nine-storey building after an impact of drone debris, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration. Five people were rescued from the blaze.
