Sergei Sobyanin News

Moscow.

The war, largely a grinding artillery and drone battle across the fields, forests and villages of eastern Ukraine, escalated on Aug. 6 when Ukraine sent thousands of soldiers over the border into Russia's western Kursk region. For months, Ukraine has also fought an increasingly damaging drone war against the refineries and airfields of Russia, the world's second largest oil exporter, though major drone attacks on the Moscow region — with a population of over 21 million — have been rarer.

Ukraine launched a new massive wave of drone attacks Sunday as Russians cast ballots on the final day of a presidential vote set to extend President Vladimir Putin's rule for another six years. The Russian Defence Ministry reported downing 35 Ukrainian drones overnight, including four in the Moscow region. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there were no casualties or damage.

Alexei Navalny's funeral will be held in Moscow on Friday, his wife Yulia announced, but she said she was unsure if it would pass off peacefully and that plans for a civil memorial service had been blocked. Kira Yarmysh, Navalny's spokesperson, posted on X that a service for Navalny would be held on Friday afternoon in the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God in the Moscow district of Maryino where Navalny used to live. Navalny would then be buried at the Borisovskoye cemetery, around 2.5 km (1.5 miles) away on the other side of the Moskva River.

Russia thwarted a Ukrainian attack on Russian regions involving at least 24 drones and two missiles, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday. The ministry said that Ukrainian drones were shot down over Moscow, Tula, Kaluga, Smolensk and Bryansk. It also said Russian air defences shot down two Ukrainian S-200 surface-to-air missiles that had been adapted to hit land targets.

Russia said it thwarted a coordinated Ukrainian attack on Crimea early on Sunday, while drones also targeted Moscow, disrupting air traffic in the capital, and caused a fire at an oil depot in the southwest of the country. Ukraine in recent days has launched a series of strikes on Russian military targets in occupied Crimea and the Russian Navy Black Sea Fleet's facilities, seeking to undermine Moscow's war efforts in the critical region. Attacks deep inside Russia, far from the front lines, have also increased, with Moscow's mayor saying at least two drones were shot down in the capital region early on Sunday. Reuters could not independently verify Sunday's reports and there were no immediate comment from Kyiv. In an opinion piece late on Saturday, Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's Security Council, urged Kyiv's allies to speed up the delivery of weapons, saying this was the only way to end the war. «For example, the complete or partial elimination of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which is a doable task, should significantly accelerate the process of Russia's search for a way out of the ongoing war,» Danilov wrote on the Ukrainska Pravda news site. Russian air defence systems destroyed at least six drones targeting Crimea from different directions, Russia's defence ministry said on Sunday. The report on the Telegram messaging app did not say whether there was any damage or casualties in the peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in a broadly condemned move in 2014, eight years before Moscow's full-fledged invasion. In the Moscow region, a drone was destroyed over the Istra district and another over the Ramensky district, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram, adding there were no casualties or

Russia shot down one Ukrainian drone over the outskirts of Moscow and six others over the annexed Crimean peninsula on Sunday, according to the Ministry of Defence. At around 1:45 am (2245 GMT on Saturday) one drone was intercepted over Moscow's Istrinsky district, the defence ministry said in a Telegram post. «According to preliminary data, there was no damage or casualties at the site where the debris fell,» Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote in a separate Telegram post. «Emergency services specialists are working at the scene.» Two Ukrainian drones were also destroyed at 1:15 am over the west coast of Crimea, with another four drones detected and destroyed over the peninsula between 1:45 to 2:20 am, according to the ministry. Since Ukraine launched its counteroffensive in early June, Russia has weathered waves of drone attacks that have sporadically damaged buildings, including in the capital. Russian officials have downplayed the significance of the attacks.

Russia and Ukraine, five drones were shot down overnight in three Russian regions, with one targeting the capital city, Moscow. Fortunately, there were no reported casualties from these incidents. Meanwhile, Russia continued its fourth day of air attacks on Ukraine's port city, Izmail, situated on the Danube River.

Black Sea Fleet, officials said Friday, the latest in a surge of attacks on the capital and the flashpoint waterway. The drone assaults came as a Russian-proxy official confirmed speculation that Ukrainian forces had breached the left bank of the Dnipro river, the de facto frontline in the south of the country. Russia's defence ministry said its air force downed a Ukrainian drone over the capital at about 04:00 (0100 GMT) on Friday.

Russia fired missiles at western Ukraine that killed an 8-year-old boy, local officials said, and drones that Russian officials blamed on the Ukrainian military targeted Moscow for a third straight day but reportedly didn't cause significant damage. Also Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the firing of all the heads of regional military draft boards, part of his crackdown on corruption since the outbreak of Russia's war in Ukraine more than 17 months ago. The missile that killed the boy struck a house In western Ukraine's Ivano-Frankivsk region, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Polish border, according to the office of Ukraine's prosecutor general. But Ukrainian air defenses frustrated Russia's daylight attack on Kyiv, Ukraine's capital. Debris from intercepted missiles fell on residential areas of the city, including the premises of a children's hospital, without causing casualties, local authorities said. Falling wreckage of missiles and drones has in the past killed people on the ground and damaged buildings in Kyiv.

Moscow, the city's mayor said on Wednesday, the latest in a surge of drone attacks targeting the capital. «Two combat drones' attempt to fly into the city was recorded.

By Pavel Polityuk

Russian authorities have accused Ukraine in yet another drone attack on Moscow and its surroundings

By Andrew Osborn

Three Ukrainian drones attacked Moscow in the early hours on Sunday, the Russian authorities said. The incident has left one person injured. One of the four airports around Moscow was closed for traffic temporarily post the attack.

Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow damaged two office blocks, the mayor said early Sunday, as an airport in the Russian capital was reportedly closed to traffic. «Ukrainian drones attacked tonight. Facades of two city office towers were slightly damaged.

Russian authorities have accused Ukraine of launching a drone attack on Moscow during which one of the aircraft fell near the Defense Ministry’s main headquarters

The Russian military says it has fended off a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow that prompted authorities to briefly close one of the city's airports