Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow hit by massive drone raid for second night ahead of Putin’s Victory Day parade – UK Times

Ukrainian forces attacked a power substation in Russia’s western Kursk region, the regional governor said early this morning after Russian war bloggers reported a new Ukrainian land-based incursion into the area backed by armoured vehicles.

Officials on both sides of the border reported deaths from military activity and ordered evacuations of several settlements.

Kursk governor Alexander Khinshtein said Ukrainian forces had struck the substation in the town of Rylsk, about 50km (30 miles) from the border, injuring two teenagers. Two transformers were damaged and power cut to the area.

“Dear residents, the enemy, in its agony, is continuing to launch strikes against our territory,” Khinshtein wrote, confirming Ukrainian presence in the Russian region.

Last month, Russia’s top general said that Ukrainian troops had been ejected from Kursk, ending the biggest incursion into Russian territory since the Second World War, and that Russia was carving out a buffer zone in the Ukrainian region of Sumy.

Ukraine made a surprise incursion into Kursk in August 2024, hoping to shift the momentum in Russia’s full-scale invasion and draw Russian forces away from other sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine.

All four airports serving Moscow have been shut down and all flights have been halted, said Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia this morning.

Airports in a number of regional cities were also closed, it said.

Just hours earlier, Russia’s capital came under a massive drone attack, officials reported.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that at least 19 Ukrainian drones were destroyed on their approach to Moscow “from different directions”.

Russia only reports the number of drones it destroys, and not those that hit their targets.

Russian air defence units destroyed a swarm of Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow for the second night in a row, prompting the closure of the capital’s airports, Russian officials said early this morning.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that at least 19 Ukrainian drones were destroyed on their approach to Moscow “from different directions”.

Russia only reports the number of drones it destroys, and not those that hit their targets.

A day earlier Ukraine hit Moscow with four drones, with Russian president Vladimir Putin set to host a Victory Day parade in the city at the end of this week to mark the 80th anniversary of victory in the Second World War.

At least three social media sites on Telegram with links to Russian security services – Baza, Mash and Shot – said one drone struck an apartment building near a major road in the south of the capital, smashing windows.

There were no reports of casualties.

The mayor said there was “no destruction or casualties” at any of the sites where fragments had fallen.”

Specialists from the emergency services are working at the sites where the incidents occurred,” he said.

He referred to debris falling on one of the key highways leading into the city, but made no mention of a dwelling being hit.