Russia hit by massive Ukrainian drone attack

Russian air defenses intercepted 660 Ukrainian drones in a major nighttime attack on 12 Russian regions as well as Crimea, the Black Sea and the Azov Sea, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday.

It appeared to be one of the biggest drone attacks on Russian regions since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago.

Russian state media TASS said it was the largest attack this year.

The major attack came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that he had ordered “a 40-day influence operation,” believed to mean an escalation of attacks, aimed at “compelling (Russia) to end the war” after U.S. peace efforts over the past year yielded no breakthrough, Associated Press reported.

In the Tula region just south of Moscow, a private house was damaged by the attack and a woman was wounded, Tula Gov. Dmitry Milyaev said in an online statement as reports of damage caused by the attack began to emerge.

He also said a power line was damaged and an unspecified industrial facility in the city of Novomoskovsk.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin also reported that 47 Ukrainian drones were downed as they flew toward the Russian capital. He did not report any casualties or damage.

Meanwhile, Ukraine said 2 civilians were killed in Russian attacks.

Two people were killed and seven others injured in Russian attacks on the northeastern Kharkiv region over the previous 24 hours, regional head Oleh Syniehubov said Friday.

Russian forces struck the city of Kharkiv and 16 other settlements across the region using guided aerial bombs and drones of various types, Syniehubov said.

Ukraine’s Defense Forces overnight stopped 174 of 189 Russian drones, the Ukrainian air force said. However, four of seven Iskander-M ballistic missiles that were fired got through air defenses and struck various locations, it said.