Russia’s military said Tuesday it destroyed 144 Ukrainian aerial drones launched in overnight attacks targeting regions across western Russia.
Air defenses shot down 20 of the drones over the Moscow region, where Governor Andrey Vorobyov said drones damaged apartment buildings and homes in Lyubertsy and Ramenskoye. The attack killed at least one person and injured three others, Vorobyov said on Telegram.
The most intercepts took place over the Bryansk region along the Russia-Ukraine border, but officials there reported no damage or casualties after the 72 drones were shot down.
Russian air defenses also downed Ukrainian drones over the Kursk, Tula, Belgorod, Kaluga, Voronezh, Lipetsk and Oryol regions. The governors in most of those areas said on Telegram there were no reports of casualties.
Russia’s latest air assaults on Ukraine included using drones to target the Kyiv region, which has come under repeated attack this month.
Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said on Telegram that air alerts sounded for two hours Tuesday, but that Ukrainian air defenses shot down all of the Russian drones directed at the capital.
Ukraine’s air force said Tuesday it shot down 38 of 46 drones used by Russia in overnight attacks.
The intercepts took place over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy, Vinnytsia and Zaporizhzhia regions, the air force said.
Ukraine's foreign ministry said Monday it had summoned Iran's charge d'affaires Shahriar Amouzegar to protest the possibility that Tehran is supplying Russia with ballistic missiles.
The ministry said on Telegram that it gave Amouzegar a harsh warning that confirmation of missile deliveries to Russia would have "devastating and irreparable consequences" for their bilateral relations.
The White House told VOA last week it is “alarmed” by unconfirmed Western news reports that an unprecedented Iranian transfer of missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine recently happened or will occur imminently.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that unnamed U.S. and European officials determined in recent days that Iran has delivered ballistic missiles to Russia in what would be a first for the growing military partnership of the two anti-Western allies.
The Kremlin has dismissed the reports and Iranian officials Monday denied supplying Russia with missiles.
Some information for this story was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters