Russia shot down two drones flying over border regions on Sunday after the Governor of Belgorod region said a drone carrying explosives had killed a man. Kyiv has stepped up its drone attacks on targets deep behind Russian lines as it seeks to weaken Russia’s economy by halting its grain supply. The strikes have hit storage depots, the country’s largest airport, a flagship naval base, and other vital sites.
In Moscow, one of the drones was destroyed close to the defense ministry in the city center. At the same time, Russian news agencies reported that another landed close to a pig breeding complex near Russia’s western border. Officials said there were no casualties in either case.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed retaliation, saying, “The whole world will feel this.”
Russia rarely acknowledges such drone strikes within its territory, although it has blamed Kyiv for many incidents or attacks inside Russian borders. Ukraine’s military campaign against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine has intensified this summer after a ceasefire collapsed in June.
A wave of drone attacks has sparked a sharp rise in tensions between the neighbors. The Kremlin has accused Kyiv of orchestrating the drone penetrations as a pretext to launch a broader military offensive against Russia.
Ukraine has denied such claims but has defended its use of drones to target military equipment and other sensitive infrastructure. The country’s military chief has warned that the war could escalate into a full-blown confrontation, leading to a cross-border exchange of artillery.
The drone attack on the pig breeder was the most significant since Ukraine launched its counteroffensive in May, bringing the conflict far from its front line. The latest penetrations reflected a broader effort by Ukraine to target facilities deep behind Russia’s border, such as its office buildings and even its capital, which has become a frequent target of drone strikes.
A Russian defense ministry statement said one drone was destroyed over the Bryansk region that borders Ukraine, while the other was shot down over the Moscow area. It said both were armed with electronic warfare assets and had “no chance to reach their targets.” The ministry did not disclose any damage or casualties. A Reuters reporter in Krasnogorsk, west of Moscow, saw minor damage to the tiling and shattered exterior window panes of a high-rise building that a Russian news agency said was targeted. A Russian prosecutors’ office cited law enforcement officers at the scene who found scraps of what appeared to be drone debris. Flights were halted at two Moscow airports as reports of drones disrupted air traffic. Flights later resumed at Vnukovo and Kaluga. Other Russian airports were open.
