Moscow mayor reports increased activity in skies over capital as Russia shoots down 100 Ukrainian drones

Russian air defences shot down 105 Ukrainian drones over 11 regions of the country overnight, the Defence Ministry reported on Tuesday, as the Russian capital saw increased drone activity ahead of Victory Day celebrations later this week.

Air defences downed 19 drones over the capital and the Moscow region in five separate incidents overnight, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said, in the biggest attack on the Russian capital since March, when 74 drones were shot down in one night.

The wreckage of one drone fell on a highway, Sobyanin said, but caused no major damage or any casualties. All four Moscow airports temporarily suspended flights due to drones, though have now resumed operations, according to Russia’s federal aviation authority, Rosaviatsia. Airports in other Russian cities also saw temporary closures.

Some 32 drones were shot down over the western Bryansk region, while another 22 were downed over the Voronezh region, also in the west of the country.

The heightened drone activity likely contributed to the decision by the Russian-installed authorities in the Crimean city of Sevastopol to cancel their Victory Day celebrations for the third year running, which came just days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kyiv could not guarantee the safety of foreign officials who travel to Moscow for the Victory Day parade on Friday.

Meanwhile, one person was killed and another two were injured in shelling of the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, in the eastern Donetsk region, according to the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Honcharenko. The Ukrainian Air Force reported that 54 Russian drones had been shot down around the country overnight.