Moscow says 660 Drones Intercepted as Kyiv Intensifies Long-Range Strikes

Russian air defence systems shot down 660 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Defence Ministry said on Friday, marking one of the highest single-day interception figures since the start of the conflict as Kyiv intensifies its long-range strikes against energy and military infrastructure.

The drones were destroyed over more than a dozen regions, including the Russian capital, the annexed Crimean Peninsula, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, the Ministry said on Russia's state-run Max platform, according to AFP.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at least 47 drones heading towards the capital were intercepted. "Emergency services specialists are working where the debris fell," Sobyanin said on Telegram, without reporting any casualties or damage.

A "massive" drone attack also struck the Tula region, about 180 km (112 miles) south of Moscow, Governor Dmitry Milyaev said. "A private residential house was damaged in a settlement in Shchekino district, as a result of which a woman was wounded," Milyaev said on Telegram.

The barrage came a week after Ukraine launched its largest drone offensive on Moscow since the start of the full-scale war, with air defences intercepting at least 194 drones bound for the capital and leaving at least 17 people injured, according to CNN. That attack damaged the Moscow Oil Refinery, just 15 km from the Kremlin, and caused flights at all major Moscow airports to be temporarily suspended.

Ukraine has stepped up its long-range drone strike campaign against Russia in recent months, particularly targeting energy infrastructure, with the aim of depriving the Kremlin of a vital source of revenue to fund its war effort, now in its fifth year.

In the latest known strike, Ukrainian forces hit the Orenburg Gas Processing Plant, one of the world's largest and home to Russia's only helium plant along with two key satellite communications centres, Ukraine's General Staff said, according to the Associated Press.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has framed the long-range strikes as a key strategy to force Moscow to end its war. "We do not want this war and never have, everyone knows this, and our partners know this," he told reporters last week. "But if Ukraine is engulfed in flames, so will your Moscow be."

Zelenskyy has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by US President Donald Trump, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has refused, according to the Associated Press.