Moscow woke to another jolt from the skies as Ukraine sent more than 400 drones toward the Russian capital, according to the city’s mayor — a dramatic salvo fired on the eve of a crucial NATO summit in Turkey where the war is expected to dominate the agenda.
The barrage highlighted Ukraine’s growing reliance on long-range drones in the more than four-year conflict, as Russian border regions continue to come under fire and Moscow itself faces a rising tempo of attempted strikes.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defences intercepted most of the drones “neutralised by air defence forces at distant approaches.”
He said 36 “enemy UAVs were destroyed on approach to Moscow.”
The latest wave of drone launches followed Russian strikes that killed 30 people in Ukraine yesterday.
In the hours after those deadly attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pressed NATO partners to deliver what he called “strong decisions” at the summit in Ankara.
“It is critically important that the world – first and foremost the United States and our European partners — come out of the NATO Summit in Ankara with strong decisions in support of our air defence,” he posted on Facebook.
Long-range attacks have intensified in recent months, with Russia and Ukraine increasingly trading drone strikes and missile launches that hit targets well beyond the front line, widening the war’s reach and adding pressure ahead of high-stakes diplomacy.
US President Donald Trump said yesterday that a resolution to the war is “getting closer than people realise” and that Ukraine will be on the table during discussions at the NATO summit.
Mr Trump spoke after weekend conversations with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mr Zelensky.
He did not offer any specific basis for his claim that an end to the conflict was within sight.
