Ukraine-Russia war: Moscow shuts down airports as Kyiv launches major drone attack

At least two people were injured and buildings were damaged in an overnight Russian drone attack on Ukraine‘s southern region of Odesa, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday.

“The enemy has once again launched a massive attack on our region,” the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Odesa region said on its social media account. “Garages with cars and property were on fire, residential buildings, shops were damaged.”

Oleh Kiper, governor of the region on the Black Sea coast, said, without providing further detail, that the attack caused some fires.

The scale of the attack was not immediately clear.

Video footage posted by the emergency services showed firefighters combing in the dark through a pile of a building debris and an apartment building with blown-out windows, while residents gathered in front.

Ukrainian overnight drone attacks have set several non-residential buildings on fire in Russia’s Kaluga and Bryansk regions, regional governors said this morning.

“Emergency services and firefighters are on the site,” Alexander Bogomaz, governor of the Russian border region of Bryansk said, without providing further detail.

The defence ministry said its air defence units had destroyed 23 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 17 over Bryansk.

Vladislav Shapsha, governor of the Kaluga region, which borders the Moscow region to its northeast, said a non-residential building in the region was on fire as result of Ukraine’s drone attack.

Ukraine launched at least 17 drones targeting Moscow early today, forcing the temporary closure of two of the capital’s airports, Russian officials said.

Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the 12 drones were destroyed in the Ramenskoye and Kolomensky districts of the Moscow region, as well as in Domodedovo city, southwest of Moscow.

“According to preliminary information, there is no damage or casualties at the site of the fall of the debris,” Sobyanin said on Telegram. “Emergency services are on the sites.”

The Ramenskoye district, some 45km (30 miles) southeast of the Kremlin, was last targeted in September Ukraine’s biggest attack on the Russian capital, when Russian air defence units destroyed 20 drones.

Rosaviatsia, Russia’s federal air transport agency, said on Telegram that “to ensure the safety of civil aircraft flights, temporary restrictions have been introduced on the operation of the Domodedovo and Zhukovo airports,” starting at 5.30am GMT.

It did not say how long the restrictions would be in force.

Russian president Vladimir Putin signed into law a treaty on the country’s strategic partnership with North Korea which includes a mutual defence provision, according to a decree published yesterday.

The accord, signed by Mr Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in June after a summit in Pyongyang, calls on each side to come to the other’s aid in case of an armed attack.

Russia’s upper house ratified the treaty this week, while the lower house endorsed it last month. Mr Putin signed a decree on that ratification that appeared on Saturday on a government website outlining legislative procedures.

The treaty galvanises closer ties between Moscow and Pyongyang since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Read more about Moscow and Pyongyang’s pact here: