Ukraine drone attack shuts Moscow airports, says Russia

MOSCOW/KYIV — Russia has accused Ukraine of launching a second consecutive night of drone attacks targeting Moscow and other Russian cities, as cross-border clashes escalate and both sides report strikes deep into enemy territory.

All four of Moscow’s main airports were temporarily shut down overnight for safety reasons, according to Russia’s aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, but operations resumed a few hours later. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at least 19 Ukrainian drones were intercepted from “various directions” before reaching the capital. Debris from one of the drones reportedly fell onto a major highway, though no injuries were reported.

Unconfirmed reports from Russian military bloggers claimed that windows in a Moscow apartment building were shattered by the impact of falling wreckage.

Elsewhere in Russia, officials in Penza, Voronezh, and the border Kursk region also reported drone attacks. In Rylsk, Kursk, two teenagers were injured and a power substation damaged, knocking out electricity to parts of the town, acting governor Alexander Khinshtein said. He blamed a Ukrainian strike.

In Ukraine, Kharkiv’s mayor reported overnight Russian drone attacks in his city and surrounding Kyiv areas, while one person was killed in Ukraine’s Odesa region, according to regional governor Oleh Kiper.

These latest tit-for-tat attacks come amid renewed cross-border tensions. Ukrainian forces reportedly attempted to breach Russian defenses in the Kursk region over the weekend, attacking a drone command unit near Tyotkino. Ukrainian military officials said troops remain active in the region, maintaining a presence established during a surprise incursion in August 2024 aimed at creating a buffer zone to defend northeastern Ukraine’s Sumy region.

Russian military bloggers described heavy battles at the border, including reports of Ukrainian forces clearing minefields and advancing with armored vehicles after launching overnight missile strikes and destroying bridges. Maps shared online — yet to be independently verified — suggested Ukrainian forces attempted to cross into Russia in at least two locations.

While Moscow has not issued an official statement on the ground offensive, the renewed activity signals a significant flare-up in hostilities more than three years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In response to rising threats, authorities in Sumy have urged residents in two nearby settlements to evacuate.

The situation remains fluid as both nations intensify long-range strikes and ground maneuvers along their shared border.