MOSCOW — Two people were killed and nine injured in overnight drone attacks on the Moscow region that Russian officials blamed on Ukraine, Gov. Andrey Vorobyov said, according to TASS.
The dead were a 20-year-old man in the village of Radumlya, in the Solnechnogorsk district, and a 71-year-old man whose body rescuers found beneath the rubble of a destroyed home in Barybin, in Domodedovo, the governor said.
Across seven districts, 47 private homes were damaged, according to Vorobyov. Local officials also described a warehouse fire, burned and damaged vehicles, damaged apartment buildings and overnight power outages.
The accounts of responsibility, casualties, damage and interceptions came from Russian officials and were not independently verified. The TASS report included no Ukrainian response.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses intercepted and destroyed 868 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones between 8 p.m. Moscow time Monday and 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Drones were downed over 11 regions — Belgorod, Bryansk, Kaluga, Kursk, Lipetsk, Oryol, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tver, Tula and Moscow — as well as over Crimea and the Sea of Azov, the ministry said.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said 650 drones flew toward the Moscow region between 8:30 p.m. Monday and 5 a.m. Tuesday. Most were destroyed at long range, and 105 were shot down as they neared the capital.
Tallying Sobyanin’s posts, TASS counted 161 drones downed on approach to Moscow since the start of Tuesday. The agency called the attempt one of the largest against the city in two years.
Vorobyov put the number brought down over the Moscow region by air defenses and electronic warfare systems at 185. None of the officials’ reports explains how these counts overlap.
Injuries and Property Damage
A man with shrapnel wounds was hospitalized in Pokrovskoye, Vorobyov said. Two residents of Yadromino and Gorki, in the Istra area, were also hospitalized, and one is scheduled for surgery. In Lyakhovo, in the Domodedovo district, three people needed medical attention.
Domodedovo district head Yevgeniya Khrustaleva gave a separate figure: seven people injured in her district, including a child, three of them hospitalized. It is unclear how her count relates to the governor’s regional total of nine.
In Istra, 10 private homes were damaged, along with outbuildings and two cars in Safontiyevo, Torlopovo, Gorki and Yadromino, according to the governor’s earlier account. A house in Pokrovskoye, in the Volokolamsk district, had its facade and windows damaged.
In Domodedovo, a fire broke out at a private home in Lobanovo, and the Barybin house where rescuers found the older victim was destroyed.
In a Lobanovo apartment building, four apartments had windows and balcony glass shattered, and windows at a nearby boiler room were also damaged. No one was hurt there, and no evacuation was needed.
Vorobyov’s later update also listed three damaged vehicles, two in Istra and one in Stupino.
In Litvinovo, a drone hit the roof of a store’s warehouse and set it on fire, said Konstantin Mikhalkov, head of the Solnechnogorsk district. The 46 employees were evacuated, and a cargo truck was damaged. Vorobyov later said the fire had been put out.
Mikhalkov reported that two homes and a car were damaged elsewhere in the district and that nine cars burned. In Durykino, a drone crashed into a parking lot and damaged 19 vehicles but injured no one. Firefighters quickly put out that blaze, preventing more serious damage, he said.
Several houses were damaged in the Dmitrov district, according to district head Mikhail Shuvalov.
Drone debris damaged an overhead power line in Domodedovo, causing outages overnight, Khrustaleva said. Power has been restored to most homes near Lyakhovo, Dobrecheno, Bekhteyevo and Krasny Put, while crews keep working in Lobanovo.
Her preliminary tally found damage at 33 locations, mostly single-family homes, along with three apartment buildings. Emergency services were working in all affected areas, Vorobyov said.
Attacks Reported in Other Areas
In the Smolensk region, a drone attack on a private home injured one person, who declined hospitalization, Gov. Vasily Anokhin said. He reported 19 drones downed over the region overnight.
Air defenses shot down 46 drones over the Kaluga region, Gov. Vladislav Shapsha said, and 32 over the Tula region, according to Gov. Dmitry Milyaev.
A drone strike damaged a passenger bus in Gorlovka, in what Russian authorities call the Donetsk People’s Republic, injuring seven civilians, Mayor Ivan Prikhodko said.
Vladimir Mironov, director of the Gorsvet passenger transport company, told TASS that a Ukrainian drone struck the bus roof and that one passenger lost a leg.
Two of the injured were hospitalized in moderate condition and five were treated as outpatients, the region’s health ministry told TASS. No children were among them.
In the Bryansk region, Gov. Yegor Kovalchuk said two civilians were wounded in a large drone attack on Belaya Berezka.
Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a terrorism case under Article 205 of the Criminal Code over the strikes on the Moscow region and the Donetsk area, spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko told TASS.
Investigators are gathering evidence, identifying the types and models of drones used and seeking the Ukrainian service members they allege were involved, she said.
