Ukraine war latest: Kyiv targets Russia with largest ever drone attack overnight

Russia’s air defence units destroyed 45 drones that Ukraine launched overnight targeting Moscow and several other regions, Russia’s defence ministry said today.

Of these, 11 of the drones were destroyed over the Moscow region, 23 over the border Bryansk region, six over the Belgorod region, three over the Kaluga region and two over the Kursk region, the ministry said in a statement.

Russian president Vladimir Putin made an unscheduled trip to Chechnya, a mainly Muslim republic within the Russian Federation, his first visit in nearly 13 years, as Ukraine‘s stunning cross-border incursion into western Russia entered its third week.

Putin was greeted by Chechnya’s self-styled strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov, before visiting a special forces academy bearing his own name and speaking with volunteer fighters who train there prior to being deployed in Ukraine.

Putin praised the volunteers and said that as long as Russia has men like them, it will be “invincible,” according to reports by Russian state agencies.

India prime minister Narendra Modi said he will “share perspectives” on the peaceful resolution of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia during his visit to Kyiv this week.

Mr Modi departed for Poland today and will visit Kyiv on Friday, a first visit to Ukraine by an Indian prime minister since diplomatic relations were established 30 years ago.

“As a friend and partner, we hope for an early return of peace and stability in the region,” Mr Modi said in a statement before his departure, without using the term “war” or “invasion”.

India has presented itself as a neutral party to war, repeatedly urging Ukraine and Russia to use dialogue and diplomacy to resolve their differences without condemning Putin’s invasion. Both Ukraine and its Western allies have urged Modi to help in isolating Russia on the world stage for its actions, but New Delhi has rebuffed these calls.

Mr Modi’s two-day visit to Russia last month coincided with a lethal strike on a children’s hospital in Kyiv, following which he told Putin that the death of innocent children was painful and terrifying and urged resolution of the conflict.

The Ukrainian government has also pitched for India to help rebuild the country’s war-torn economy.

Mr Modi met Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Italy last month.

Russia believes Ukraine’s incursion into its Kursk region was prepared with intelligence from the United States, Britain and Poland, the newspaper Izvestia reported today, citing Russia’s foreign intelligence agency.

“The Ukrainian Armed Forces operation in the Kursk region was prepared with the participation of the US, UK and Polish intelligence services,” Izvestia cited the Foreign Intelligence Service as saying, who claimed to have “reliable information” but did not provide evidence to back their claims.

It also claimed that the units involved underwent combat coordination in training centres in the UK and Germany.

Ukraine’s Western allies have issued a number of statements flatly denying any involvement in the Kursk incursion.

Last week, the White House said Ukraine did not provide advance notice of the operation. White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, said Washington had no involvement. “We had nothing to do with this,” she said.

“We have no involvement. We’ll continue to have conversations with the Ukrainians about their approach, but it is really for them to speak to,” she added.

Ukrainian forces have either destroyed or damaged all three of the bridges over the Seym River in western Russia, according to Russian sources, as Kyiv’s incursion into western Russia entered its third week yesterday.

A Russian military investigator confirmed that Ukraine had “totally destroyed” one bridge and damaged two others in the area. The full extent of the damage remained unclear. “As a result of targeted shelling with the use of rocket and artillery weapons against residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in the Karyzh village… a third bridge over the Seym River was damaged,” the unnamed representative for Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a video published on the Telegram channel of Russian state TV anchor Vladimir Solovyov. Russian military bloggers Vladimir Romanov and Yuri Podolyaka and several high-profile pro-war Telegram channels in Russia also claimed that the third bridge had been targeted and damaged. Podolyaka’s post was shared by Roman Alekhin, an advisor to Kursk’s acting regional governor.

Ukraine’s attacks on the three bridges over the Seym River in Kursk could potentially trap Russian forces between the river, the Ukrainian advance and the Ukrainian border. Already they appear to be slowing down Russia’s response to the Kursk incursion, which Ukraine launched on 6 August.

Vladimir Putin made an unscheduled trip to Chechnya, a mainly Muslim republic within the Russian Federation, his first visit in nearly 13 years, as Ukraine’s stunning cross-border incursion into western Russia entered its third week.

Putin was greeted by Chechnya’s self-styled strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov, before visiting a special forces academy bearing his own name and speaking with volunteer fighters who train there prior to being deployed in Ukraine.

The Russian president praised the volunteers and said that as long as Russia has men like them, it will be “invincible,” according to reports by Russian state agencies.

Kadyrov said in a post on his official Telegram channels that more than 47,000 fighters, including volunteers, have trained at the facility since Moscow began what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Fighters from Chechnya, whose bid for independence after the Soviet Union’s collapse led to years of war with Russian government forces, are participating on both sides of the conflict in Ukraine.

At least 11 Ukrainian drones flying towards Moscow were destroyed as Ukraine launched one of the largest ever drone attacks on the Russian capital this morning, the city’s mayor said.

Some of the drones were destroyed over the city of Podolsk, mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. The city in the Moscow region is some 38 km (24 miles) south of the Kremlin.

“The air defence systems of the defence ministry continue to repel enemy UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) attacks,” Sobyanin said on his Telegram channel at 4.43 am (0143 GMT). “This is one of the largest attempts to attack Moscow using drones ever. We continue to monitor the situation,” he added.

He said that according to preliminary information, there were no injuries or damage in the aftermath of the attacks.

Ukraine has often launched one or two drones targeting Moscow in recent months, causing no substantial damage.

The Wednesday attack, however, seems to have been larger than a May 2023 attack when at least eight drones were destroyed over the capital in an attack president Vladimir Putin said was Kyiv’s attempt to scare and provoke Russia.

Russian officials rarely disclose the full size of the attacks, reporting only drones that its air defence units destroy.