UKRAINE launched its biggest drone attack on Moscow in the early hours of Tuesday, March 11, with at least 91 drones targeting the Russian capital.
Moscow Region Governor, Andrei Vorobyov, confirmed that the assault killed at least two workers at a meat warehouse and injured 18 others.
The attack also sparked fires, forced a sudden airports shutdown, and diversion of dozens of flights.
Vorobyov who posted a picture of a wrecked apartment with its windows blown out, said that some residents were forced to evacuate a multi-storey building in the Ramenskoye district of Moscow region, about 50 km (31 miles) southeast of Kremlin.
Russia’s defence ministry reported that 337 Ukrainian drones were shot down across the country, including 91 over the Moscow region and 126 over the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have been retreating.
The ICIR reports that the massive drone attack at dawn came as a Ukrainian delegation prepared to meet with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia to explore potential grounds for peace talks in the three-year-old war.
Kyiv which has endured repeated mass strikes from Russia and was reportedly being targeted by a ballistic missile and 126 drones on Tuesday.
The ICIR reported that Trump paused intelligence sharing with Kyiv on Wednesday, March 5, after suspending all U.S. military aid to Ukraine on Tuesday, March 4.
However, Moscow Mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said that air defences were still repelling attacks on the city with a population of at least 21 million, including the surrounding region.
“The most massive attack of enemy unmanned aerial vehicles on Moscow has been repelled,” Sobyanin said in a post on Telegram.
Sobyanin said Tuesday’s was the biggest Ukrainian drone attack on the city, which along with the surrounding region has a population of at least 21 million.
Russia’s aviation watchdog said flights were suspended at all four of Moscow’s airports and two other airports, in the Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod regions, both east of Moscow, to ensure air safety after the attacks.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues.