A woman is killed near Moscow as over 140 Ukrainian drones attack Russia, officials say

More than 140 Ukrainian drones targeted several Russian regions overnight, including Moscow and the surrounding area, killing at least one person, officials said on Tuesday. It was one of the largest drone attacks on Russian soil in the two-and-a-half-year war.

In the town of Ramenskoye, just outside Moscow, a woman died and three people were injured, said the governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov. Drones hit two multi-story residential buildings there and started fires. Five residential buildings were evacuated because of falling drone debris, Vorobyov said.

The attack also prompted authorities to temporarily close three airports outside Moscow – Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky. According to Russia's civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia, a total of 48 flights were diverted to other airports.

It was Ukraine's second massive drone attack on Russia this month. On September 1, the Russian military said it had intercepted 158 Ukrainian drones over more than a dozen Russian regions. Russian media called it Ukraine's largest drone attack since the war began. Russia's Investigative Committee announced a criminal investigation into the attack, which it described as a terrorist attack.

Meanwhile, Russia has bombed Ukraine with missiles, glide bombs and its own drones, killing more than 10,000 civilians, according to the United Nations.

This photo released by the official Telegram channel of Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev shows the site of the damaged multi-story residential building after a suspected Ukrainian drone attack in Ramenskoye outside Moscow in Moscow Region, Russia, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Official Telegram channel of Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev via AP)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ukraine has invested heavily in developing domestic drone production, expanding the drones' range, payload and capabilities, and has increasingly used drone strikes to slow down the Russian war machine, disrupt Russian society and annoy the Kremlin.

Ukrainian government officials complain that the weapons promised by Western partners do not meet the requirements of the Ukrainian military and often arrive long after the promise. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on arms companies to increase their production.

Across the 1,000-kilometer battlefield front line, Ukrainian troops face the larger and better-equipped Russian army. The two sides are fighting mainly over parts of the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, fighting for towns and villages that have been bombed out. Last month, Ukraine also launched a daring invasion of the Russian border region of Kursk.

In Moscow, drone debris fell on a private house on the outskirts on Monday evening, but no one was injured, said Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. He counted more than a dozen drones that were heading toward Moscow and were shot down by air defenses as they approached the city.

In total, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, 144 Ukrainian drones were “intercepted and destroyed” over nine Russian regions, including those on the border with Ukraine and deeper inland in Russia.

___

Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.