Ukrainian drone strikes overnight and early Friday killed two people in Russia and attempted to hit targets in Moscow, Russian authorities said.
Russian air defenses shot down 155 Ukrainian drones between 23 p.m. Thursday and 00 a.m. Friday, including 7 flying toward Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.
Three of Moscow's four airports, Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky, temporarily suspended operations but later resumed, Russia's aviation authority Rosaviatsia said late on Thursday, Reuters reported.
A drone crashed on the territory of an agricultural enterprise in the Lipetsk region, causing a short-lived fire and killing one person and injuring another, regional governor Igor Artamonov said on Telegram.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defense systems had destroyed four drones over the Lipetsk region, located in southwestern Russia. The ministry reported only the number of drones its units destroyed, not how many were launched by Ukraine.
Most of the drones were destroyed overnight over the Russian regions bordering Ukraine: Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk, the ministry added, according to Reuters.
One person was killed and another injured in a Ukrainian attack on the Tula region, about 200 km south of Moscow, regional governor Dmitry Milyaev said on Telegram.
The mayor of the port city of Taganrog in southwestern Russia, Svetlana Kambulova, said on Telegram that the remains of the drone fell on the aircraft manufacturer Beriev.
Kambulova did not say whether there was any damage as a result of the attack, but added that there were no injuries.
Reuters could not independently confirm the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Kiev says its strikes on Russian territory are aimed at destroying infrastructure crucial to Moscow's war effort and are a response to Russia's continued attacks on Ukraine during the war.
Moscow has escalated its attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, launching a record number of drones that have targeted Kiev and cities across Ukraine and killed dozens of civilians, Ukrainian officials said.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched against its smaller neighbor in February 2022. Thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainians.
"Air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 155 Ukrainian drones," the Russian Defense Ministry said on the Telegram social network, Beta reports.
The statement added that 53 drones were shot down in the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine.
In the Lipetsk region, also in western Russia, one person was killed in a drone attack, the local governor reported.
As Governor Igor Artamonov said, a drone crashed in the Khlevinsky neighborhood during the night, causing a fire, and one person was killed and one injured, Beta reports.
Ukraine carries out almost daily airstrikes on Russia, while Russian forces continue to bomb Ukrainian cities almost daily as part of their offensive against Ukraine launched in February 2022.
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