Russia says over 400 Ukrainian drones intercepted, infant killed near Moscow

Russia on Tuesday said it shot down 419 Ukrainian drones over the country overnight, including in the Moscow region, where authorities said a six-month-old baby was killed.

Kyiv has stepped up its long-range drone strike campaign against Russia in recent months, as Moscow’s full-scale offensive against Ukraine drags on for almost four-and-a-half years.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces struck a satellite communications site in the Moscow region for the second time in a week.

Air defence systems “intercepted and destroyed 419 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles” around the country, Moscow’s defence ministry posted on the state-run Max platform.

The governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov, later said that drones had hit the village of Yevgoryevsk, south-west of Moscow, hitting a “private house.”

“Unfortunately, a six-month-old baby died on the way to the hospital,” he said on Telegram.

Two adults and another child were hospitalised, he added.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said earlier that air defence had shot down 61 “enemy drones” over the capital since Monday evening.

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Zelensky said Kyiv struck the “Dubna space communications centre in the Moscow region”, which Ukraine also said it hit last week.

“This is a special satellite communications facility used, in particular, for reconnaissance and for coordinating the activity of Russia’s occupation contingent in Ukraine,” Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian leader calls the attacks deep inside Russia “long-range sanctions” and fair retaliation for Moscow’s daily barrages against Ukraine.

Kyiv has hit targets in Russia as far as the Urals in recent months.

The swarm on Tuesday came days after Russia shot down 660 Ukrainian drones between Thursday and Friday, one of the highest figures since the start of the conflict.

A Ukrainian attack also caused a fire last week at a refinery in the southeast of Moscow.

AFP