Ukraine carries out one of the largest-ever drone attacks on Moscow as Kursk incursion continues

Ukraine carried out one of the largest-ever drone attacks against Moscow on Wednesday, as Kyiv continues to launch counteroffensives on Russian soil.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it destroyed 45 Ukrainian drones overnight, of which 11were over Moscow, according to a Google-translated update on Telegram.

“This is one of the largest attempts to attack Moscow with drones ever. We continue to monitor the situation,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a separate Google-translated Telegram post, after assessing the strikes resulted in “no damage or casualties at the site of the fall of the debris” in earlier updates reporting the offensives.

Some of the drones were neutralized over Podolsk, a nearby city south of Moscow, the official added. Citing Russian aviation watchdog Rosaviatsiya, state news agency Tass said in a Google-translated report that airports in the Moscow region resumed regular operations after restrictions were briefly introduced during the night.

CNBC has reached out to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.

The drone offensive took place just as Russian President Vladimir Putin carried out his first trip in 13 years to Chechnya to inspect local troops and volunteers prepared to participate in the war against Kyiv, according to a Google-translated Kremlin readout.

Ukraine weathered its own barrage of aerial attacks, with the country’s air force saying it destroyed 50 out of 69 Russian-launched drones overnight, in its latest Google-translated report.

CNBC could not independently verify either set of developments on the ground.

The tides of the Russia-Ukraine war, largely carried out through artillery and drone advances, changed earlier this month, when Ukraine pivoted into the counteroffensive with a surprise cross-border incursion on Russian territory.

In the more than two years since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, Kiyv has notched fewer frequent military attempts against the capital of Moscow, instead focusing its firepower on the airfields and oil facilities of the world’s second-largest oil exporter. The counteroffensive has also raised questions of a potential impact on flows through the Soviet-era Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline that deliveries gas from west Siberia through the Sudzha hub in the Kursk region, before crossing into Ukraine and flowing toward Slovakia.

The incursion has likewise further slimmed the odds of a diplomatic resolution to the conflict. Russia has previously conditioned its willingness to join the talks table on its ability to retain four Ukrainian territories it illegally annexed since its invasion. Kyiv has repeatedly said it will not concede territory.

Moscow is now unlikely to fall in the “negotiation trap” following Ukraine’s attack on the Kursk region, according to former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

“No more negotiations until the enemy is completely defeated!” he urged in a Google-translated Telegram post.