
Moscow mayor says air defence units downed two drones overnight
(Reuters) -Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said early on Tuesday that Russian air defences had downed two Ukrainian drones heading for the city overnight.
Sobyanin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said specialists were examining the debris of at least one drone downed after midnight.
The mayor said a third drone targeting the capital had been repelled earlier in the evening.
Russia's defence ministry reported that air defence units had destroyed nine drones in a 90-minute period before midnight, including nine over the border regions of Kursk and Bryansk.
Ukraine has launched drone attacks on a wide range of targets in recent months, some a long distance from the Ukrainian border.
In one attack this month, dubbed "Operation Spider's Web," Ukrainian drones targeted long-range military aircraft at a number of Russian bases.
In recent months, Russia has stepped up mass drone attacks against Ukrainian cities. Waves of Russian drones and missiles swarming in and around Kyiv killed 10 people overnight on Sunday.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Jamie Freed)
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Star
22 minutes ago
- The Star
Russia says it has captured two villages in Ukraine, Ukraine reports heavy fighting
A resident stands next to burned cars at the site of a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Dnipro, Ukraine July 26, 2025. REUTERS/Mykola Synelnykov MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia's Defence Ministry said on Saturday its forces had captured two more villages in eastern Ukraine, including one in Dnipropetrovsk region where Moscow says its troops have begun to make advances. Ukrainian forces made no acknowledgement that the villages had changed hands, but reported heavy fighting. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in an assessment of the situation along the 1,000-km (620-mile) front line, said the logistics hub of Pokrovsk remained the focal point of battles. He also said Ukrainian forces had recorded "successful actions" in Sumy region on Ukraine's northern border, where Russian forces have established a foothold in recent weeks. Reuters could not independently confirm battlefield accounts from either side. The front-line clashes were reported three days after the two sides held their third direct meeting in Turkey aimed at resolving the nearly 3-1/2-year-old war. Both sides reported progress in swaps of prisoners or the remains of war dead, but no breakthroughs were announced in terms of a ceasefire or a meeting of the two countries' leaders. Russia's military has been reporting nearly daily the capture of new villages in its slow advance westward. The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had taken control of Zelenyi Hai in Donetsk region and Maliivka, a village just inside Dnipropetrovsk region. The ministry described Zelenyi Hai as "a major stronghold of Ukrainian formations in this section of the front (that) covered approaches to the administrative border of the Dnipropetrovsk region". Dnipropetrovsk is not among the five regions that Moscow claims as its own -- Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014. Russia last month said its forces had crossed into Dnipropetrovsk region and now says it holds at least two villages. Ukraine's military has for weeks dismissed any notion that Russian troops hold territory in the region. The Ukrainian military's General Staff, in a late evening report, mentioned Zelenyi Hai as one of several frontline areas that had come under Russian attack 11 times over the past 24 hours. It said Maliivka was one of several villages where 10 Russian attacks had been halted. Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said Ukraine's top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, had identified Pokrovsk as an area requiring "special attention" under constant attack. A military spokesperson, Viktor Trehubov, told national television that Russian forces were attacking Pokrovsk in "a small simply does not stop". (Reporting by ReutersEditing by Peter Graff and David Gregorio)


The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Colombia denounces mass deportation of citizens from Ecuador
Colombians who are deported by the Ecuadorian government line up at the Rumichaca International Bridge in Colombia, July 26, 2025. Colombian Foreign Ministry/Handout via REUTERS BOGOTA (Reuters) -Colombia's Foreign Ministry on Friday criticized Ecuador for deporting large numbers of Colombian citizens without a formal protocol, describing it as a "unfriendly gesture," while Quito said the removals followed legal procedures and upheld human rights standards. On Thursday, the Colombian government reported that authorities in the neighboring country had announced plans to deport Colombians currently imprisoned in various Ecuadorian penitentiaries. "Through diplomatic channels, Colombia has formally lodged its strongest protest against the Ecuadorian government for this unfriendly act, and is currently evaluating appropriate measures in response," the Foreign Ministry said Friday night. The ministry emphasized that Ecuador had taken this action "without implementing any protocol to guarantee the safe, orderly, and respectful transfer of detainees, in line with their human rights." Ecuador's Foreign Ministry said in a statement it had notified Colombia via diplomatic channels of individual deportation proceedings starting July 8, and that the process followed the country's legal framework. Authorities underscored their commitment to due process, citing the issuance of individual rulings and judicial release orders. "Ecuador therefore rejects claims of mass deportations," the ministry said. Meanwhile, Radio Caracol reported that Amilcar Pantoja, mayor of the Colombian border town of Ipiales, confirmed that around 700 Colombian detainees were being sent across the binational bridge without prior official notice. (Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra in Bogota, contributing reporting by Alexandra Valencia in Ecuador; Writing by Fabian Cambero and Sarah Kinosian; Editing by Nick Zieminski)


The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Sudanese coalition led by paramilitary RSF announces parallel government
FILE PHOTO: Deputy head of Sudan's sovereign council General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo speaks during a press conference at Rapid Support Forces head quarter in Khartoum, Sudan February 19, 2023. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo (Reuters) -A Sudanese coalition led by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced on Saturday a parallel government, a move fiercely opposed by the army that could drive the country further towards partition as a two-year-old civil war rages. The government led by RSF General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, was announced west of the country. The RSF and its allies signed in March a transitional constitution outlining a federal, secular state divided into eight regions. The RSF controls much of the west of the country such as the vast Darfur region and some other areas but is being pushed back from central Sudan by the army, which has recently regained control over the capital Khartoum. The military led by career army officer General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had condemned the idea of the RSF creating a parallel government and promised to keep fighting until it controls all of Sudan, which has been plagued by conflicts, coups, poverty and hunger. In February, the RSF and other allied rebel leaders agreed in Kenya to form a government for a "New Sudan," aiming to challenge the army-led administration's legitimacy and secure advanced arms imports. Dagalo, a former militia leader and one of Sudan's wealthiest people, known as Hemedti, was hit with sanctions by the U.S, which accused him of genocide earlier this year. He had previously shared power with Burhan after veteran autocrat Omar al-Bashir's ouster in 2019. However, a 2021 coup by the two forces ousted civilian politicians, sparking a war over troop integration during a planned transition to democracy. Burhan was sanctioned in January by the U.S. which accused him of choosing war over negotiations to bring an end to the conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people. The ongoing conflict has devastated Sudan, creating an "unprecedented" humanitarian crisis in the country, with half the population facing spreading hunger and famine, according to the United Nations. (Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz, Writing by Jana Choukeir, Editing by Michael Georgy)