Russia announced on Tuesday that it shot down five Ukrainian drones over the Moscow region in a rare attack near the Russian capital that disrupted the operation of an international airport.
Ukraine, for its part, reported several Russian strikes, including a particularly bloody one in the Kharkiv region, in the northeast of the country, which left at least 38 injured, including 12 children.
The attack in Russia targeted sites in the Moscow region and on the outskirts of the capital, areas that have only been targeted a few times since the start of the offensive in Ukraine even though such strikes are has multiplied elsewhere in Russia.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, four drones were destroyed by anti-aircraft defense near the capital and the fifth was neutralized by “electronic warfare means”, before crashing in the Moscow region.
The attack caused no casualties or damage, the ministry said.
“All attacks were repelled by anti-aircraft defense, all detected drones were neutralized,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram.
However, the attack disrupted the operation of Vnukovo Airport, one of Moscow’s three major international airports, for three hours.
One of the drones was neutralized near Koubinka, a locality located about forty kilometers from the airport where several flights had to be redirected in the morning before it resumed its activity.
After the attack, the spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy Maria Zakharova denounced on Telegram a “terrorist act” which targeted an area where “civilian infrastructure” is located.
injured children
In Ukraine, two people were killed in the Kherson region in the south of the country by Russian artillery shelling, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin announced on Telegram.
In the Kharkiv region, a Russian strike using an Iskander missile left at least 38 injured, including 12 children, according to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office. A three-month-old infant had to receive medical assistance at the scene.
Three people were also injured in the Donetsk region and three others in the Cherniguiv region, according to local authorities.
The toll of the Russian drone strike that hit an apartment building in Sumy, in the northeast, on Monday increased to three dead and 21 injured.
Fighting also continues on the front, almost a month after the counter-offensive launched by Ukrainian forces which has so far yielded only moderate territorial gains for kyiv.
According to the British Ministry of Defence, the Ukrainian forces are facing in their advance a “massive use of anti-tank mines by Russia” and attacks by Russian aircraft, helicopters and artillery.
Russian forces have “achieved some success with this approach”, but continue to “suffer from major weaknesses”, he said.
Grain agreement threatened
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday reported “difficult” fighting throughout the past week as Kyiv’s forces advanced 37 square kilometers in the south and east.
Russia has affirmed for its part that the Ukrainian army has not “achieved its objectives on any axis” since the start of its counter-offensive in early June.
On the diplomatic level, Russian President Vladimir Putin took part on Tuesday in a virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional alliance which notably brings together Russia, China and India.
Mr. Putin assured that his country would “continue to resist” in the face of “external pressures” and “sanctions”. He thanked the SCO countries that had expressed their “support” to him during the mutiny of the paramilitary group Wagner which shook the Kremlin at the end of June.
Separately, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it sees “no reason” to extend Ukraine’s landmark grain export deal expiring on July 17.
Moscow has been denouncing for months obstacles to its own deliveries of agricultural products due to Western sanctions. “Under these conditions, it is obvious that there is no reason to continue (the agreement)”, warned the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.