Russian defences shoot down 337 Ukrainian drones over 10 regions

The attack, which killed one person and wounded several, came as a Ukrainian delegation was to meet with America's top diplomat in Saudi Arabia about ending the three-year war with Russia

Moscow: The Russian military said its air defences shot down 337 Ukrainian drones over 10 Russian regions overnight in what appears to be the biggest Ukrainian drone attack on Russia in three years, hours before key Ukraine-US talks were to start on Tuesday.

The attack, which killed one person and wounded several, came as a Ukrainian delegation was to meet with America’s top diplomat in Saudi Arabia about ending the three-year war with Russia. There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials on the attack.

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The talks in Saudi Arabia reflect a new diplomatic push after an unprecedented argument erupted during President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s February 28 visit to the White House. Most of the drones — 126 of them — were shot down over the Kursk region across the border from Ukraine, parts of which Kyiv’s forces control, and 91 were shot down over the Moscow region, according to a statement by Russia’s Defence Ministry.

Other regions listed in the statement included Belgorod, Bryansk and Voronezh on the border with Ukraine and those deeper inside Russia, such as Kaluga, Lipetsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Oryol and Ryazan. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said over 70 drones targeted the Russian capital and were shot down as they were flying toward it.

The governor of the Moscow region surrounding the capital, Andrei Vorobyov, said that one person was killed and nine were wounded in the attack, which also damaged several residential buildings and a number of cars. Another person was wounded on a highway in the Lipetsk region, Gov. Igor Artamonov said.

Sobyanin said the roof of a building in Moscow also sustained damage, which he described as “insignificant”. Footage of the building, published by RIA Novosti, showed a charred spot on the facade of a multi-story residential building near the roof, with bits of the building’s lining stripped off.

Flights have been temporarily restricted in and out of six airports, including Domodedovo, Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky just outside Moscow, and airports in the Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod regions. Train traffic through the Domodedovo railway station in the Moscow region has also been briefly halted, local officials reported.