Russia suffers the most massive drone attack since the start of the invasion of Ukraine

MoscowRussian anti-aircraft defences on Tuesday morning repelled the largest barrage of Ukrainian drones since the war began. The Russian Defence Ministry has put the number of aircraft downed at 337, 91 of them in the Moscow region and 74 of them in the city itself, according to the mayor, Sergei Sobyanin. The fall of the drone debris left five dead and 18 wounded, including three creatures, in several towns on the southern outskirts of the capital, according to the latest report published by the governor of the region, Alexander Khinshtein. It had been six months since there had been a fatality from a drone attack in the Moscow region.

The people who died were in the car park of a supermarket logistics centre in the Domodedovo district and, as a result of the explosion, about twenty cars were burned. In the same district, a few kilometres away, a woman is in serious condition after being hit by drone debris, while in the Leninsky district another six people were injured, including a four-year-old child, although none of them are expected to die. Numerous residential buildings were damaged and Moscow's main airports had to be closed for several hours. The authorities are investigating the attack as an act of terrorism and have already promised compensation of more than 10,000 euros for the families of the dead and between 1,000 and 5,000 for the injured.

Ukrainian intelligence has already warned that this attack is a "signal" for Putin. The head of the Ukrainian army's Center for Combating Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, believes that the Russian president "should also be interested" in an air ceasefire like the one proposed by Ukraine. "Drones can fly over Moscow, air defenses shoot, yes, but that does not save the Russians from panic," Kovalenko added.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov also spoke out this morning, warning that the offensive could torpedo peace negotiations in Ukraine. "For now, there are no negotiations, so there is nothing to blow up. But it can cause significant damage to the current trend, yes," he warned at the daily press conference.

This action takes place on the day when negotiations are scheduled to begin Kiev-Washington negotiations in Saudi Arabia for a ceasefire, and after Donald Trump has repeatedly accused Volodymyr Zelensky of not being willing to seek peace. The foreign ministers of the United States, Marco Rubio, and of Ukraine, Andri Sibiha, are due to meet on Tuesday to continue the talks. Zelensky expressed his willingness to reach a partial truce and to sign the transfer of his country's exploitation of rare earths to the United States, which did not materialize after President Donald Trump humiliated him during his visit to the White House.

The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, has also assured that it is not the first time that the Ukrainian army has launched a drone attack on the same day that there is a visit by a "high-ranking delegation" to Moscow, in reference to the presence in the capital of Idun Sinirlioglu. Trump's special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, is also scheduled to meet Vladimir Putin in the Russian capital this week to advance talks between Russia and the United States, according to several media reports. On Friday, the Russian military also hit Ukraine with one of the largest airstrikes since the start of the invasion, with the US president saying that Moscow was "crushing" Kiev.

Russian military advance

The Ukrainian response comes amid the rapid advance of Russian troops in the Kursk region, partially occupied since August by the Ukrainian army. Kiev has lost 25% of the territory it controlled in a week, coinciding with the halt of intelligence aid from the United States. Russian and North Korean soldiers threatened to surround the Ukrainian ornaments that still remain in this area, but on Monday Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov did not want to venture to predict when this operation could be completed, although he was convinced that it would end successfully. Control of Kursk was one of the cards that Zelensky intended to play in any eventual peace negotiations to force Putin to make concessions.