Ukrainian soldiers prepare a vehicle adapted to fire helicopter shells as the Russia-Ukraine war continues in the direction of Toretsk, Ukraine, Aug. 19, 2024.
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Ukraine carried out one of the largest-ever drone attacks against Moscow on Wednesday, as Kyiv continues to launch counter-offensives on Russian soil.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it destroyed 45 Ukrainian drones overnight, of which 11were over Moscow, according to a Google-translated update on Telegram.
“This is one of the largest attempts to attack Moscow with drones ever. We continue to monitor the situation,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a separate Google-translated Telegram post, after assessing the strikes resulted in “no damage or casualties at the site of the fall of the debris” in earlier updates reporting the offensives.
Some of the drones were neutralized over a Podolsk, a nearby city south of Moscow, the official added.
CNBC has reached out to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.
The tides of the Russia-Ukraine war, largely carried out through artillery and drone advances, changed earlier this month, when Ukraine pivoted into the counter-offensive with a surprise cross-border incursion on Russian territory.
In the more than two years since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, Kiyv has notched less frequent military attempts against the capital of Moscow, instead focusing its firepower on the airfields and oil facilities of the world’s second-largest oil exporter.
This breaking news story is being updated.