Ukraine targeted Moscow with at least 11 drones on Wednesday, one of the biggest such attacks on the Russian capital since the war began. 

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it shot down a total of 45 drones over the country on Wednesday, with 11 intercepted over the Moscow region, 23 over Bryansk, six in Belgorod, three in Kaluga and two in Kursk. 

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said some of the drones were destroyed over the city Podlsk, just 24 miles south of the Kremlin headquarters. 

“This is one of the largest attempts to attack Moscow using drones ever,” Sobyanin said on Telegram.

“The layered defense of Moscow that was created made it possible to successfully repel all the attacks from the enemy UAVs.”

Russian outlets aired unverified footage of several drones soaring overhead above Moscow before they were shot down by the Kremlin’s air defense system. 

Officials in the regions where the drones were spotted said no deaths or serious damage had been reported as a result of the drone strike.  

Main sites of the Ukrainian counteroffensive

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1. Melitopol: Kyiv’s forces continued advancing toward the city of Melitopol on the Sea of Azov in the south. If Ukraine were to claw back Melitopol, it could bring it closer to breaking through the Russia-held land corridor linking the annexed Crimean Peninsula to mainland Russia, splitting Moscow’s forces in two and cutting their supply lines.
2. Zaporizhzhia: Intense battles raged in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, where US officials said Kyiv has launched its “main thrust” aimed at retaking 20% of its occupied territory. While Moscow claimed to have repelled Ukraine’s attacks involving dozens of armored vehicles and inflicted heavy losses on Kyiv’s troops, the Institute for the Study of War reported that the Ukrainian offensive appeared to have broken through some Russian defenses.
3. Donetsk: Ukrainian troops on Thursday recaptured the strategically significant village of Staromaiorske located in the Donetsk region south of a cluster of settlements along the Mokri Yaly river that Kyiv had seized at the start of the counteroffensive. Control of the village could open the way for Ukraine to push southward toward the coast.
4. Bakhmut: Ukrainian forces were said to be “gradually moving forward” near Bakhmut in the east, where Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar claimed Russians were dying at a rate eight times higher than Ukrainians. Geolocated footage showed that Kyiv’s troops have made gains south of the town of Klishchiivka, and additional fighting was reported near the settlements of Kudriumivka and Andriivka.

The attack was reminiscent of the May 2023 assault where eight drones were shot over Moscow in what Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed as Kyiv’s attempt to scare and provoke the Kremlin.  

Since the start of the year, Ukraine has stepped up its drone warfare against Russia, attacking oil refineries and airfields to slow the enemy invasion. 

The latest drone strikes come 15 days into Ukraine’s ground incursion in Kursk, where Kyiv has seized dozens of Russian towns and hundreds of square-miles of land past the border. 

Russia’s state media claims 31 people have died since the incursion began on Aug. 6, with official figures yet to be independently verified. 

With more than 120,000 civilians fleeing neighboring towns, Russian officials have condemned the Ukrainian incursion and said “any possibility” for peace has passed. 

Who will negotiate with them after this, after the atrocities, the terror that they are committing against peaceful residents, the civilian population, civilian infrastructure and peaceful facilities,” said Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry. 

Kyiv has said it’s looking to establish a “buffer zone” in Russia after Ukraine took out three bridges in the region, hindering Moscow’s supply lines and redeployment efforts to fight off the invading soldiers. 

With Post wires