Ukraine launches over 400 drones toward Moscow amid escalating strikes
Ukraine reported sending more than 400 drones toward Moscow, while Russian officials said dozens were intercepted and several civilian sites were damaged, as both sides continue a cycle of retaliatory attacks.
Ukraine's military said it launched more than 400 drones toward the Russian capital on Monday, part of a broader offensive that followed Russian missile strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Moscow's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, reported that most of the drones were shot down far from the city and that 85 were intercepted near Moscow.
Regional authorities said the attack wounded ten people and caused damage to residential buildings and infrastructure, including a fire at the Yuzhnye Vrata industrial park south of the capital. An unverified report also mentioned a blaze at an oil depot in Podolsk.
"Ukrainian forces hit logistics facilities and an oil depot in the Moscow region," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, adding that Kyiv's forces also struck two vessels of Russia's shadow fleet and four cargo ships in the Black Sea.
In Russia's Belgorod region, a drone strike on a passenger bus in Shebekino killed five people and injured 23, according to the acting regional governor.
Both sides have accused each other of escalating the conflict. The Institute for the Study of War noted that Russia has increased its use of ballistic missiles, launching more in July than it typically produces monthly. Ukrainian air defenses reported intercepting the majority of incoming drones but said some missiles and drones caused damage at multiple locations.
Separately, a cargo vessel that left the Ukrainian port of Odesa was hit, resulting in ten deaths among its crew, according to Ukraine's Sea Ports Authority. The incident prompted condemnation from Syrian authorities, who denounced attacks on commercial ships carrying Syrian sailors.