Ukraine war: Massive Ukrainian drone attack hits 9 Russian regions including Moscow

David Knowles, founder and co-host of The Telegraph’s Ukraine war podcast, has died at the age of 32, the newspaper confirmed yesterday.

The award-winning journalist passed away in Gibraltar on Sunday “following what was believed to be a cardiac arrest,” The Telegraph said in an obituary.

Knowles was the co-host of the weekly podcast Ukraine: The Latest, launched at the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022. The podcast won Best News Podcast at the Publisher Podcast Awards this year.

Knowles had joined the British newspaper in 2020 as deputy head of social media. He was later promoted to head of social media.

“David was a talented and popular journalist who was perhaps best known for helping to make our Ukraine podcast such a success. Before that, he was an impressive leader of our social media team. We would like to offer our sympathy to his family and friends,” said Chris Evans, the editor of The Telegraph.

Ukraine took more than 300 square miles of the Kursk region in the first month of its counter-invasion of Russia, raising morale at home and challenging a growing sense in the West that stalemate was the best Kyiv could hope for.

Yet as a daring incursion looks set to become an open-ended occupation, doubts are growing about its long-term wisdom.

Russian historian and author Mark Galeotti shares his concerns in this piece:

Two people died in a fire that broke out at an oil pipeline in Russia’s Orenburg region, TASS state news agency reported today, citing the regional prosecutor’s office.

An investigation into the cause of the fire is underway, TASS reported.

It was not clear when the fire broke out, but there were unofficial reports of the incident on some Russian Telegram channels yesterday.

Russia grounded more than 30 flights this morning as its air defences downed at least 15 drones around Moscow. Russian officials said at least one child was killed and a large fire broke out in a high-rise residential building outside the capital.

Moscow’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin said emergency crews were dispatched to several sites across the region and near the Zhukovo airport and to the Domodedovo district – home to one of Moscow’s largest airports, he said.

Russia’s RIA agency reported that Zhukovo was closed for air traffic following the suspension of more than 30 domestic and international flights there and at other airports that serve the Russian capital.

More than 60 drones were also downed over Russia’s southwestern region of Bryansk, which borders Ukraine and the Lipetsk region in Russia’s south, regional governors said. There was no damage or casualties reported there.

The overnight drone attacks damaged at least two high-rise apartment buildings in the Ramenskoye district of the Moscow region, setting several flats on fire, Moscow’s governor Andrei Vorobyov said on Telegram. “Unfortunately, a 9-year-old child died,” Mr Vorobyov said.

A senior Ukrainian official said Western partner countries must allow Ukraine to use weapons they have supplied to strike military warehouses inside Russia because of strong suspicions Iran has provided ballistic missiles for the Kremlin’s war effort.

The United States has told allies it believes Iran has sent short-range ballistic missiles to Russia for its war in Ukraine, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press over the weekend.

Western countries supporting Ukraine in the war have hesitated to let its military strike targets on Russian soil, fearing they could be sucked into Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, but the head of the Ukrainian presidential office said “protection is not escalation.”

“In response to the supply of ballistic missiles to Russia, Ukraine must be allowed to destroy warehouses storing these missiles with Western weapons in order to avoid terror,” Andrii Yermak said on his Telegram channel. He did not specify which country was supplying the missiles.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry summoned a senior Iranian diplomat to warn of “devastating and irreparable consequences” for bilateral relations if reports that Tehran had supplied Russia with ballistic missiles were correct.

The rebuke comes after the US told its allies it believes Iran has sent short-range ballistic missiles to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry said on Telegram it had summoned Iran‘s charge d’affaires, Shahriar Amouzegar, and warned him in “harsh form” about the consequences for relations if delivery of the missiles was confirmed.

A senior Iranian official denied the reports earlier yesterday, describing them as “psychological warfare”. A European Union spokesperson described the information as “credible”.

Large amounts of battlefield gear and vehicles are inside Sweden’s 17th aid package to Ukraine, officials said. The latest tranche of aid will take Stockholm’s total military support to 4.6bn Swedish crowns (£339m), defence minister Pal Jonson said.

The new package will include ammunition for infantry fighting vehicles already donated by Sweden, as well as purchases that would facilitate a transfer of Gripen fighter jets in the future, though no such transfer has been decided on yet. It also contains additional combat boats, missiles and camouflage gear as well as funding to support defence procurements for Ukraine.

The measures were decided in close collaboration with Kyiv.

“We want to have the ability to donate Gripens to Ukraine at a possible later stage,” Mr Jonson told a press conference.

About half of the value of the package consisted of parts needed in Sweden’s production of the latest model Gripen E fighters for its own air force. This would mean Sweden would not, as previously planned, need to cannibalise its existing C/D models as part of the upgrade, allowing the older jets to transferred to Ukraine at a possible future date.

“At present, it is not on the cards to transfer JAS Gripens to Ukraine as this would disturb the introduction of F-16s,” the government said in a statement.

Russian officials claim one child was killed and another civilian was injured in an early morning drone attack today by Ukraine that targeted Moscow.

Regional governor of Moscow oblast Andrei Vorobyov confirmed the casualties shortly after a fire was reported in a multi-storey residential building in Moscow’s Ramenskoye district.

Moscow’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed that the 11th and 12th floors of the building were set ablaze. “Emergency services are on site,” Sobyanin said.