Ukraine deployed more than 400 drones towards Moscow in a significant aerial offensive on Monday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepared for critical discussions to manage a political crisis triggered by a recent government shake-up.
The large-scale assault occurred just hours after Russia bombarded Kyiv and other Ukrainian urban centres with ballistic missiles, highlighting a relentless cycle of strikes as the invasion enters its fifth year, reports AP.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin reported that the drone barrage began late Sunday and continued into Monday morning. While he claimed the majority of the aircraft were downed far from the capital, at least 85 were intercepted in the vicinity of Moscow.
According to Andrey Vorobyov, the head of the Moscow region, the strikes wounded 10 people and caused damage to several residential buildings and civilian infrastructure facilities.
Yevgeniya Khrustaleva, head of the Domodedovo area, confirmed that the attack ignited a fire at the Yuzhnye Vrata industrial park, located approximately 30 kilometres south of the capital. Unconfirmed reports from the Astra news outlet also indicated a fire at an oil depot in Podolsk.
In a statement, President Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces successfully targeted logistics facilities and an oil depot situated more than 400 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. He further claimed that Kyiv’s forces struck four dry cargo ships in the Black Sea and two vessels belonging to Russia’s “shadow fleet,” which is used to transport sanctioned oil.
While Ukraine’s long-range drone capabilities have evolved rapidly, Russia has increasingly relied on ballistic missiles, which are significantly harder to intercept. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) noted that Moscow appears to be dipping into its stockpiles, launching more ballistic missiles this month than it is reportedly capable of producing monthly.
Recent Russian bombardments have taken a heavy toll on Ukrainian civilians. A strike on Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region injured 13 people, including a 13-year-old girl, according to military administration head Oleksandr Hanzha.
Additionally, the Russian Defence Ministry claimed its forces struck fuel tanks in the port of Odesa. Ukraine’s air force reported that while they jammed or intercepted 81 of 94 Russian drones overnight, a missile and nine drones caused damage across nine separate locations.
Amidst the intensifying conflict, Zelenskyy is grappling with a “deep split” within his administration. The President is scheduled to hold “key talks” on Monday to address domestic unrest following a government reshuffle that saw the removal of 35-year-old Mykhailo Fedorov as defence minister.
The decision to sacrifice Fedorov while maintaining faith in the 60-year-old, Soviet-trained armed forces chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi, has sparked days of street protests. Zelenskyy now faces the challenge of reassuring the public that this reliance on the military’s “old guard” will not derail Ukraine’s defence efforts.
