Airports in Moscow briefly halted operations after a swarm of Ukrainian drones targeted the Russian capital in the early hours of May 6, according to Russian officials.
In a social media post, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at least 19 drones, which had converged on the capital from different directions, had been downed by Russian air defenses.
The attack did not cause any deaths or injuries or significant material damage, Sobyanin said.
As of publication time, it remained unclear whether the blast had been caused by an incoming Ukrainian drone.
In a statement cited by TASS, Russia’s defense ministry said that additional drones had been “eliminated” in several other parts of the country, including the regions of Bryansk, Voronezh, Penza, Kaluga, and Belgorod.
Kyiv has yet to comment on the reported attacks, which The Epoch Times could not independently verify.
Security remains especially tight in Moscow, which this week will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the allied victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a three-day unilateral cease-fire with Ukraine to mark the anniversary, which will fall on May 9.
According to Putin, the cease-fire will remain in effect from the beginning of May 8 to the end of May 10.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has derided the three-day cease-fire as pointless, calling instead for a month-long unconditional truce in line with an earlier U.S. peace proposal.
Russia says it wants a comprehensive settlement of the conflict, not a temporary pause in the fighting.
“There will be no hostilities,” he told reporters, as quoted by TASS. “However, if there is no reciprocity from the Kyiv regime and they continue to attack our positions or facilities, we will retaliate.”
In 2022, Russia invaded and effectively annexed large swaths of eastern and southeastern Ukraine.
Since then, Kyiv has staged numerous drone attacks on Moscow, the largest of which—on March 11—left three city residents dead and injured 17 others.
Kursk Power Station Struck: Governor
Hours before the latest alleged drone attack on Moscow, Ukrainian forces struck an electricity substation in Russia’s western Kursk region, Alexander Khinshtein, Kursk’s regional governor, confirmed in a Telegram post.According to Khinshtein, the attack, which occurred on the evening of May 5, injured two residents and damaged two of the substation’s transformers.
It also caused power outages in Kursk’s town of Rylsk, roughly 30 miles from the Ukrainian border, the governor said.
In August last year, Ukrainian forces staged a cross-border offensive into Kursk, where they initially captured several hundred square miles of Russian territory.
Last month, Russia’s top general said all Ukrainian troops had been ejected from Kursk, which borders Ukraine’s northeastern region of Sumy.
He also said Russian forces were establishing a “buffer zone” inside Sumy to prevent future Ukrainian cross-border attacks.
Kyiv, however, has yet to acknowledge that its forces were decisively ejected from Kursk.
In past remarks, Zelenskyy has said that Ukrainian forces remain active in Kursk and Russia’s neighboring region of Belgorod.
In its daily update for May 6, the General Staff of Ukraine’s military said fighting remained underway on the Kursk section of the frontline, where Ukrainian forces had beaten back multiple Russian attacks.
On the same day, Kursk’s regional administration wrote on Telegram that residents were being evacuated from border areas amid increasingly frequent Ukrainian drone attacks.
The Epoch Times could not independently verify claims made by either side of the conflict.
