Ukraine war briefing: The drones that bombarded Moscow region

The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces has reeled off a list of Ukrainian aerial weaponry used to destroy targets in the Moscow region over the weekend, including the RS-1 “Bars” jet-powered UAV, the Firepoint FP-1 winged drone, and a drone previously unknown to observers and analysts, dubbed the Bars-SM Gladiator.

Ukraine’s SBU security service highlighted a strike on the Angstrom plant in Zelenograd, Moscow region, Russia, which specializes in the production of hi-tech products and microcircuits for high-precision weapons. A fire was recorded on the territory of the facility. The enterprise is an important component of the Russian military-industrial complex and is involved in the production of microelectronics, radio electronics, optical systems, and robotics for the enemy’s military needs.

The SBU continued: “Also in the Moscow region, the Solnechnogorskaya pumping station was hit, which is a critical part of the ring oil pipeline around Moscow and is used for pumping, storing and shipping large volumes of gasoline and diesel fuel, in particular for the Russian army. A fire was reported on the premises.

The strikes “reduce the enemy’s ability to continue its war”, said the SBU. Russian authorities said at least four people were killed and a dozen more wounded, and reported several hits as being from “drone debris” – as they frequently do to imply that drones were shot down by Russian defences instead of striking their intended targets. Early on Monday, the Russian defence ministry sought to emphasize the role of its air defences, claiming 3,124 Ukrainian drones were shot down over the past week.

Agence France-Presse said its journalists were granted access to an undisclosed location where Ukraine launched its long-range drones in what turned out to be one of the largest pummellings of Russia during the conflict. They described how battalion members prepared plane-like drones before they took off towards Russia, leaving trails of sparks and flames from their rocket boosters behind.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said taking the war to Moscow was “entirely justified”. In his nightly address, Ukraine’s president said that on Sunday, Ukrainian troops’ combat operations on the battlefield outnumbered Russian ones – “a very significant result”. “Much has been accomplished this year, and a shift in the balance of activity on the frontlines is noticeable.”

Within Ukraine, the SBU said, a Russian command post in the Bunge area of Donetsk region and enemy UAV control points were hit in the Dvorichnaya area of Kharkiv region, Zavitne in Kherson region, and Udachne in Donetsk region. “In addition, Ukrainian soldiers struck enemy manpower concentrations in the areas of Myrne, Donetsk region, Krasnohirsk, Zaporizhzhia region, Volfinsky, Kursk region of the Russian Federation, as well as two concentrations of occupiers in the Novoekonomichesky district of the Donetsk region.”

Over Sunday night, Russia again attacked Ukraine with drones and missiles, targeting the southern city of Odesa as well as Dnipro in the southeast, Ukrainian officials said. In Odesa, drones hit residential buildings along with a school and a kindergarten, injuring an 11-year-old boy and a 59-year-old man, said Serhiy Lysak, the head of the local military administration. In Dnipro, three people were injured in a missile attack, said the regional governor, Oleksandr Hanzha.

Earlier, in the Zaporizhzhia region, a car was hit in a Russian attack, injuring a woman and a man. In Kherson region, the regional prosecutor’s office said a drone dropped explosives on a home, killing a man, while eight civilians were injured in attacks on regional cities and towns.

A suspected Ukrainian military drone was found crashed in Lithuania on Sunday, the Lithuanian government’s crisis management centre said. The drone was not detected when it entered Lithuania, and was not armed with explosives, said the chief of the centre, Vilmantas Vitkauskas. The drone was found crashed at the village of Samane, the centre said, 40km from the Latvian border and 55km from Belarus. Kyiv was yet to comment.

Separately, the Latvian army said a drone alert was issued on Sunday morning along its border with Russia, and Nato military fighters were summoned to the area. One drone entered Latvia for a short time during the alert, the army said.

Since March, several stray Ukrainian drones have entered the airspace of Nato members Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia which border Russia and its ally Belarus. Kyiv has insisted the drones were aimed at military targets in Russia but sent off course by Russian countermeasures. The Latvian prime minister, Evika Silina, fired her defence minister after one incident, leading to the fall of her government.

The commander of Ukraine’s drone forces has defended Ukraine’s long-range attacks into Russia. In an interview with Agence France-Presse, Robert Brovdi, known as “Madyar”, said: “The sources of funding for Putin’s war expenses have become legitimate and priority military targets in any area, in any part of the territory of the occupying country, whether we are talking about the south, the Urals, or Siberia.” The interview was given before Ukraine on the weekend launched its wave of more than 600 drones into Russia.