The attack comes after Russia pummelled Ukraine with a record drone attack over the weekend, in strikes that Kyiv said killed at least 13 people.
Moscow has escalated its air attacks in recent months even as Donald Trump pushes the sides to halt the fighting and as negotiators held their first direct talks in more than three years.
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“Anti-aircraft defence systems destroyed and intercepted 296 Ukrainian aerial drones,” overnight, the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
At least 42 were shot down over the Moscow region, which surrounds the capital, governor Andrey Vorobyov said on social media, posting photos of firefighters tackling a blaze at a wooden residential house.
The US President issued a rare rebuke of Russian leader Vladimir Putin over the weekend, calling him “crazy” after Russia launched its largest ever drone attack on Ukraine.
Despite months of US-led diplomacy, the two sides appear no closer to striking a deal to end the three-year-long conflict, triggered by Russia launching its full-scale military offensive in February 2022.
Tens of thousands have been killed, much of east and southern Ukraine destroyed, and Moscow’s army now controls around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
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Moscow’s three major international airports were forced to suspend flights for hours overnight amid the barrage, aviation authorities said.
Ukraine said that Russia launched more than 900 drones in the three days up to Monday, May 26. Thirteen civilians were killed in attacks on Sunday, May 25 including three children.
Russia’s defence ministry said on May 27 that those strikes were a response to Ukrainian drone attacks that had caused Russian civilian casualties.
