A woman was killed in a suburb of Moscow during a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on central Russia, local officials said, in the first publicly acknowledged civilian death in the Russian capital.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had downed 144 drones across nine regions in one of Kyiv’s largest long-range raids across the border in recent months.
Local Telegram channels reported that the Moscow regional authorities had not issued an air raid alert for civilians to hide in shelters, a possible refusal to acknowledge the war in neighbouring Ukraine.
One drone smashed into a residential building in the Ramensky suburb of the capital, damaging 54 of the multi-storey block’s 102 apartments, said Andrei Vorobyov, the Moscow regional mayor.
A 46-year-old woman was killed in the strike and four others were injured, he added.
Footage circulated on social media appeared to show a direct hit on the building, followed by a massive explosion illuminating the night sky.
Russian state media said that the damage was caused by fragments from an intercepted drone.
“There was wreckage of the drone left on the ground, which needs to be cleared,” Mr Vorobyov wrote on his channel on the Telegram messaging app.
“For safety reasons, we have decided to evacuate the residents of five neighbouring houses.”
He also said a drone had hit an apartment on the ninth floor of another residential building in the area, injuring one person.
Ramensky is about 31 miles south east of the Kremlin, with a population of around 250,000 people.
Other footage appeared to show the burning remains of a drone on the apron of Moscow’s Zhukovsky airport.
Mash, a popular Russian Telegram channel with ties to law enforcement, said pieces of a downed drone had fallen on the runway.
The airfield, also an international airport, is home to a flight institute used to train military pilots, as well as a manufacturing hub.
Dozens of international and domestic flights were delayed from the Russian capital’s three major airports after they were closed.
Almost 50 flights were redirected from Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports, Rosaviatsiya, the federal agency for air transport said.
The Russian authorities said its forces had downed at least 20 Ukrainian attack drones that swarmed over the capital region.
More than 70 drones were downed over Russia’s Bryansk region, Russia’s defence ministry said, reporting no damage.
Ukraine claimed it had downed 38 of the 46 drones launched by Russian forces overnight.
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