Ukraine targets Moscow with biggest drone attack before talks with US

Ukraine targeted Moscow early on Tuesday in what seemed its biggest drone attack of the war on the Russian capital, killing at least one person, sparking fires and suspending air and train transport in the region, authorities said.

“Today at 4am a massive drone attack began on Moscow and the Moscow region,” Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. “At the moment, one person is known to have died and three were injured.”

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that at least 69 drones were destroyed that approached the city in several waves.

Moscow and its surrounding region, with a population of at least 21 million, is one of the biggest metropolitan areas in Europe, alongside Istanbul.

Russia’s aviation watchdog said flights were suspended at all four of Moscow’s airports to ensure air safety after the attacks.

Two other airports, in the Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod regions, both east of Moscow, were also closed. Vorobyov said that at least seven apartments were damaged and residents forced to evacuate in a multi-storey building in the Ramenskoye district of the Moscow region, about 50km (31 miles) southeast of the Kremlin.