Moscow, May 6: Russian forces intercepted more than 100 Ukrainian drones fired at almost a dozen regions of Russia, the Defence Ministry in Moscow said Tuesday, in an attack that forced all four airports around Moscow to temporarily suspend flights.
Nine other regional Russian airports also temporarily stopped operating as drones struck areas along the border with Ukraine and deeper inside Russia, according to Russia’s civil aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, and the Defence Ministry. It was the second straight night that the Moscow region reportedly was targeted.
Two people were injured in the Kursk region, according to local Gov. Alexander Khinshtein, and some damage was reported in the Voronezh region.
The Russian reports couldn’t be independently verified.
The drone assault comes two days ahead of a unilateral 72-hour ceasefire in the more than three-year war announced by President Vladimir Putin to coincide with celebrations in Moscow marking Victory Day in World War II.
The day celebrating Moscow’s defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 is Russia’s biggest secular holiday when foreign dignitaries will gather in the Russian capital.
Meanwhile, Russian forces overnight fired at least 20 Shahed drones at Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city near the border with Russia, injuring four people, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram.
The drones started a fire at the biggest market in Kharkiv, Barabashovo, destroying and damaging around 100 market stalls, he said.
Seven more civilians were injured elsewhere in the Kharkiv region by Russian glide bombs and drones, Syniehubov said.
Putin last week declared a brief unilateral truce “on humanitarian grounds” from May 8. Ukraine has called for a longer ceasefire.
Russia has effectively rejected a US proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting by insisting on far-reaching conditions. Ukraine has accepted it the proposal, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says.
US President Donald Trump said Monday at the White House that the brief truce “doesn’t sound like much, but it’s … a lot if you knew where we started from.”
Foreign leaders who have confirmed their attendance at the Victory Day festivities in Moscow include China’s President Xi Jinping, described by Putin as “our main guest.”
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, another top ally whom Putin has courted, had been expected in Moscow but he cancelled his trip amid tensions with Pakistan.
Other guests include Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has openly challenged the European Union’s policies over Ukraine. Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic also has accepted an invitation, his first trip to Russia since the invasion, but his attendance was uncertain after he became ill. (AP)
