Russian and Ukrainian strikes leave casualties and damage as hundreds of drones downed

Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday that it had brought down or destroyed 320 Ukrainian drones overnight across 19 regions, as governors reported six deaths, nine injuries and damage to warehouses near Moscow and St Petersburg. Russian strikes also killed and injured people in Ukraine.

Of the six people killed in Russia, five died in the Moscow region, where six others were injured, governor Andrei Vorobyov said on Telegram on Tuesday. The sixth death was reported separately in Belgorod, where regional authorities said a woman was killed and two people were wounded after a drone struck a car overnight. Vorobyov said a warehouse caught fire during the attack and was later doused, but provided no further details.

Drones near St Petersburg, Russia’s second-biggest city, struck a warehouse facility, regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said on Telegram, without identifying it, while one person was injured. Wildberries, Russia’s top online retailer, which has become a frequent target of Ukraine’s recent attacks, said its warehouse near St Petersburg caught fire, but there were no casualties. Neighbouring Finland, a member of the European Union and Nato, lifted a temporary aviation restriction area that had briefly been established in the eastern Gulf of Finland, its defence forces said on X.

In Ukraine’s northern city of Sumy, Russian guided bomb strikes killed two children and an elderly woman, while four people sought medical aid, regional governor Oleh Hryhorov said on Telegram. Reuters could not independently verify all the reports. Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians in the war triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In a separate incident on Monday, the roll-on/roll-off cargo ship Nadezhda was struck by a drone about 20 nautical miles off Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk while travelling from Novorossiysk to Turkey’s northern port of Samsun, Turkey’s maritime authority said in a statement late on Monday. Three crew members were seriously injured, and all 22 crew members, including the three who were seriously injured, were evacuated to Russia, while a fire continued to burn in the bow of the cargo ship. It was not immediately clear who was behind the strike on the ship.