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 defense 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 favor 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 kilometers (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 kilometers (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 Defense Ministry said air defenses 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 defenses.
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.