Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow closes 2 major airports

Two major airports serving Moscow were temporarily closed early Sunday, Russian officials said, during a Ukrainian drone strike targeting the Russian capital.

Russia air defense units destroyed multiple Ukrainian drones flying toward the city Sunday morning, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on the Telegram platform. Emergency services are working at the sites of the wreckage, he added.

“To ensure the safety of civil aircraft flights, temporary restrictions on arrivals and departures have been introduced at Vnukovo and Domodedovo  airports,” according to a statement from the Federal Agency for Air Transport. The restrictions were lifted later in the morning.

Later Sunday, Moscow said it was pushing into Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time in its three-year offensive — a significant territorial escalation amid stalled peace talks. The claim could not be independently verified.

The Kremlin has repeatedly refused calls by Ukraine, Europe and U.S. President Donald Trump for a full and unconditional ceasefire even as Moscow holds talks with Kyiv on a possible settlement to the conflict.

Meanwhile, a spat escalated between Moscow and Kyiv over a stalled prisoner exchange deal, struck at talks in Istanbul last Monday, which would release all severely injured and ill prisoners of war, as well as all captured soldiers aged 18-25. Both sides also agreed to return the bodies of 12,000 fallen soldiers, 6,000 on each side.

But on Saturday, the Kremlin accused Ukrainian negotiators of indefinitely postponing the swap — claims swiftly rejected by Kyiv.

“We urge Kyiv to strictly adhere to the timetable and all agreements reached and to begin the exchange immediately,” said Vladimir Medinsky, aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Russian statements “do not correspond to reality and previous agreements on either the exchange of prisoners or the repatriation of bodies,” Andriy Kovalenko, a Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council official, said on Telegram.

Russia’s prisoner lists “did not meet the agreed approach,” Kovalenko said, adding that no date was agreed on for the repatriation of bodies. Moscow should stop “playing dirty games and return to constructive work,” he said.

On Saturday, Russian aircraft carried out a bombing raid on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, killing four people and injuring at least 60 others, Reuters reported. A regional official described the assault as Russia’s “most powerful attack” on the city since the start of Putin’s all-out invasion in February 2022.

“It was a brutal strike on the city in the middle of the day, and in fact they have been hitting our city of Kharkiv all day long,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Saturday.

“We are working to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense,” Zelenskyy said. “We urgently need positive signals from the United States — concrete signals regarding air defense systems,” he said in his nightly address on Saturday.

“We are still waiting for a response to our request to purchase systems that can help — concrete signals, not words,” Zelenskyy said.