Moscow, July 21:
Ukraine fired more than 400 drones toward Moscow in its latest major attack on the Russian capital, the city’s mayor said Monday.
The blitz came hours after Russia bombarded Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with ballistic missiles in a relentless cycle of tit-for-tat strikes that make a settlement to end Moscow’s more than 4-year-old all-out invasion appear a distant possibility.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said he would hold “key talks” on Monday as he tries to defuse a domestic political crisis after last week’s government reshuffle exposed a deep split between the military’s old guard and young innovators over how to fight the war.
Zelenskyy needs to reassure Ukrainians that sacrificing 35-year-old Mykhailo Fedorov as defence minister and keeping faith with 60-year-old Soviet-trained Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi as armed forces chief won’t derail the fight against Russia.
Days of street protests in favour of Fedorov and against Syrskyi followed Zelenskyy’s decision.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that over 400 Ukrainian drones were sent toward the Russian capital from late Sunday until early Monday. He said most were downed far from the capital and 85 were intercepted near Moscow.
Andrei Vorobyov, the head of the region around Moscow, said that 10 people were wounded by Ukrainian drones. He said that several residential buildings and civilian infrastructure facilities were damaged.
The attack started a fire at the Yuzhnye Vrata industrial park about 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Moscow, according to Yevgeniya Khrustaleva, the head of the Domodedovo area of the Moscow region.
The Astra news outlet reported that the assault caused a fire at an oil depot in Podolsk, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Moscow but there was no official confirmation of the strike.
Ukraine’s long-range drone technology has swiftly evolved during the war, posing a problem for Russia whose huge land mass is hard to fully protect. Kyiv’s forces have aimed especially at Russian oil facilities, causing fuel shortages and embarrassing Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In May, the Russian Defence Ministry said air defences downed 1,054 Ukrainian drones in a 24-hour period.
As Kyiv pleads with foreign partners to supply it with sophisticated interceptors that can counter Russian ballistic missiles, which are much harder to stop than drones or cruise missiles, Moscow’s forces have sought to take advantage of weaknesses in Ukraine’s air defences.
Russia has in recent weeks stepped up its use of ballistic missiles, and on Sunday used them in a bombardment that Ukrainian officials said killed at least six people and wounded dozens.
“Russian forces have launched more ballistic missiles against Ukraine thus far in July than Russia reportedly produces each month,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said late Sunday.
“Russia appears to be dipping into its stockpiles to continue increasing the number of ballistic missiles it launches against Ukraine, as these missiles have a higher success rate than drones and cruise missiles,” it noted.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday that its forces struck fuel tanks in the southern Ukrainian port of Odesa overnight.
Russia fired two missiles and 94 long-range strike drones at the territory of Ukraine overnight, according to Ukraine’s air force.
It said air defences jammed or intercepted 81 drones, while nine drones and a missile caused damage at nine locations.