Moscow targeted by 'massive' Ukrainian drone attack: mayor

MOSCOW: Ukraine targeted Moscow with dozens of drones in a “massive” overnight attack, the city’s mayor said on Tuesday.

“The Defense Ministry’s air defense continues to repel a massive attack by enemy drones on Moscow,” Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram.

“As of now, the Defense Ministry’s air defense forces have shot down 69 enemy drones flying toward Moscow,” he added in a separate post.

At least one person was killed and three more wounded in the southern suburbs of the Russian capital, according to Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyov.

He added that drone debris damaged at least seven units in a residential building in another suburb in the southeast.

The attack on Moscow, hundreds of kilometres from the Ukraine border, comes ahead of an expected meeting Tuesday between top US and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia.

Ukraine is set to present the United States with a plan for a partial ceasefire with Russia, hoping to restore support from its key benefactor, which under President Donald Trump has demanded concessions to end the three-year war.

The talks in Saudi Arabia will be the most senior since a disastrous White House meeting last month, when Trump berated Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky for purported ingratitude.

Since Trump’s dressing down of Zelensky, Washington has suspended military aid to Ukraine as well as intelligence sharing and access to satellite imagery in a bid to force it to the negotiating table.