Authorities: Moscow shoots down nearly 60 drones and reopens airports
June 22 (Reuters) - Local authorities said Moscow shot down dozens of drones in the early hours of Monday and briefly suspended flights at airports, just days after Ukraine bombed an oil refinery in the Russian capital again.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced via Telegram that approximately 60 drones heading towards Moscow had been shot down. Sobyanin did not provide further details, stating only that emergency teams had been dispatched to the areas where the drones had crashed.
In a separate statement, the Civil Aviation Authority announced the suspension of flights at Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports, as well as Zhukovsky Airport near the capital, before resuming them later.
Local news agencies, citing the Ministry of Defense, reported that Russian defense systems shot down a total of 301 drones overnight, including over areas controlled by Russia.
This attack comes after drones targeted Moscow's only oil refinery last week. In that strike, Russian air defenses shot down some 200 drones in one of the largest aerial attacks on the city since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2012.
Local authorities in Ukraine reported that two people were killed and six injured in separate Russian attacks overnight.
Oleh Kyper, the governor of the Odessa region in southern Ukraine, announced via Telegram that Russia had fired an Iskander ballistic missile at the region on Sunday evening, killing one person and injuring three. He added that vehicles and fuel tanks caught fire after the missile struck an agricultural facility.
In the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, Governor Ivan Fedorov said via Telegram on Monday that a woman was killed and three others were injured in a drone attack.
The Ukrainian Navy reported that a Russian drone attack targeted a Turkish cargo ship flying the Panamanian flag, and indicated that there were injuries among the nine international crew members who were rescued.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the details.
