Russian authorities claimed to have intercepted nine Ukrainian drones heading towards Moscow overnight between Christmas and Christmas Eve.
At the time of publication, no footage of the drones or their debris was available.
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Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin issued multiple updates overnight that Ukrainian drones were intercepted, starting at around 8 p.m. on Wednesday.
In an initial update, he said a drone attack en route to Moscow had been repelled. At 11:35 p.m. local time, he issued a second update saying the defense ministry’s air defense forces had “destroyed a drone en route to Moscow.”
At 1:52 a.m., he said the air defense system “destroyed four drones that attacked Moscow,” adding 14 minutes later that “two more enemy drones that attacked Moscow” were destroyed.
Sobyanin issued two more updates: one at 2:08 a.m. saying “another drone attack has been repelled,” while another one at 2:20 a.m. says “one drone that attacked Moscow has been destroyed.”
He wrote in each update that “emergency services are working at the crash site,” though the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations’ official Telegram channel had issued no updates on the strikes at the time of publication.
Overall, Russia’s defense ministry claimed to have downed 141 Ukrainian drones nationwide overnight between 11 p.m. Moscow time Wednesday and 7 a.m. Thursday.
The ministry’s Thursday morning update says 9 drones were downed across the Moscow region, while the majority – 62 drones – were reportedly downed over the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine.
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The last confirmed Ukrainian strike on Moscow took place on Dec. 11, with 36 Ukrainian drones reportedly shot down as they approached the Russian capital, which forced Moscow’s major airports to halt flights for seven hours.