Ukraine Launches Over 400 Drones at Moscow Region Amid Escalating Cross-Border Attacks

Ukraine fired more than 400 drones toward Moscow, the city’s mayor said on Monday. Russia had earlier bombarded Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with ballistic missiles. The Ukrainian attack around Russia’s capital started a fire at the Yuzhnye Vrata industrial park – another Wildberries warehouse site like those hit over the weekend in strikes that Voldodymyr Zelenskyy said were because of the warehouses’ involvement in the Russian war effort.

The Astra news outlet reported a fire at an oil depot in Podolsk, about 20km (12 miles) south of Moscow. Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, confirmed that Ukrainian forces hit logistics facilities and an oil depot in the Moscow region, adding that Kyiv’s forces also struck two vessels belonging to Russia’s shadow fleet transporting sanctioned oil and four dry cargo ships in the Black Sea.

Russian has launched more ballistic missiles against Ukraine in July so far than it is thought to produce each month, the Institute for the Study of War thinktank said on Sunday. “Russia appears to be dipping into its stockpiles to continue increasing the number of ballistic missiles it launches against Ukraine, as these missiles have a higher success rate than drones and cruise missiles.”

A Russian attack on an infrastructure facility in Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa on Monday killed at least three people and injured three others, a city official said. There were further deaths in the eastern cities of Pavlograd and Kramatorsk, and in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia. Russian strikes have killed 28 people in the southern Odesa region in July, said the regional governor, Oleh Kiper. “If you take since the beginning of July, the Odesa region was under constant daily shelling. There were days when 13-15 air raid alerts had been announced in the region.”

Ukraine’s military commander in chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, was widely expected to lose his job, Luke Harding writes, amid signs that Zelenskyy has bowed to protests triggered by his sacking last week of the modernising defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov. Ukraine’s general staff denied media reports Syrskyi was about to be sacked, but Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov, hinted at it, saying “the public’s position has been heard” and the situation was being resolved “professionally and constructively”, urging “everyone to keep calm”.

One source in the armed forces confirmed Syrskyi’s imminent departure. “His destiny is decided. The question is who will replace him. There are a few important requirements. The person should be known and popular so everyone applauds,” Budanov said: “The enemy is closely watching every one of our internal disputes and waiting for us to start fighting among ourselves … work is under way. Results will follow.”

Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s Belgorod border region killed six people on Monday, authorities said, while Kyiv reported eight deaths after Russian attacks. The acting governor of Belgorod, Alexander Shuvaev, said a Ukrainian drone struck a passenger coach, and another strike killed a man at a car wash. Ukraine denies targeting civilians.

Ukraine’s seaports authority said a cargo vessel under the flag of the West African country of Guinea Bissau was hit by Russian forces on Sunday shortly after it left the port of Odesa, killing 10 of its crew, including five sailors from Syria. Eight people were rescued from the ship, which was carrying Ukrainian corn, it added.

India said four of its nationals were among those killed and another was injured in attacks the day before on the grain-carrying ship MV Golden Leo near the Ukrainian port in Odesa. An Indian foreign ministry statement condemned the strike. Ukraine’s navy said five people were killed and another five missing. The dead included a Ukrainian maritime pilot. Syria meanwhile said it “strongly condemns the repeated attacks targeting commercial vessels with Syrian sailors and crews aboard in Ukrainian ports and nearby maritime areas in the Black Sea, and the resulting deaths and injuries among Syrian sailors”.