War in Ukraine: Moscow says it shot down 1,198 Ukrainian drones overnight, four dead according to authorities

Russia shot down 1,198 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday, an attack which left four people dead in the Volgograd region according to local authorities. This is one of the most significant attacks targeting Russia since the start of its large-scale offensive in Ukraine in February 2022.

The announcement comes the day after a visit to Moscow by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who held discussions with Vladimir Putin, before meeting in Dublin with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as part of intense diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. “Over the past night (...), air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 1,198 Ukrainian aerial drones” over around twenty Russian regions, including Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

In the Volgograd region (south), one of the most affected by the attack, four people - all employees of a local industrial zone - were killed, according to the regional governor, Andrei Botcharov. Two other people working in this industrial zone, which includes an oil refinery and a chemical company, were injured and hospitalized, he said in a statement on Telegram.

Russia, which launched a large-scale offensive against its Ukrainian neighbor in February 2022, and Ukraine have been engaged for several months in a clear escalation of long-range strikes, increasingly targeting civilian sites, such as factories, refineries, warehouses and port infrastructure and ships. These attacks are causing an increasing number of civilian victims.