Ukraine sent drones toward Moscow for the third consecutive night and targeted several other Russian regions, disrupting air traffic throughout the country and threatening an industrial plant in Russia’s south, Russian authorities said on Wednesday.
Russian air defense units destroyed a total of 100 Ukrainian drones overnight, including six in the Moscow region and 13 over bordering regions, the Russian defense ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.
Kyiv has kept up long-range drone strikes on Moscow and other Russian regions in recent months, saying the aim is to hit military and industrial assets, sap Russia’s war economy and show Russians the conflict is no longer distant.
The attacks on Moscow came in several waves, the mayor of the Russian capital, Sergei Sobyanin, said on Telegram.
Russian aviation watchdog Rosaviatsiya said three of Moscow’s four airports, and several others throughout the country, were briefly closed for safety reasons.
Ukraine also launched several drones targeting the Budyonnovsk industrial zone in Russia’s Stavropol region, the region’s governor, Vladimir Vladimirov, said on Telegram. The Russian defense ministry said its units downed two drones over the region, located in the country’s south.
The attack caused no “significant” damage, and there were no casualties, Vladimirov said on the Telegram messaging app.
According to Ukrainian media, including the RBK-Ukraine media outlet, Kyiv attacked the Stavrolen chemical plant in the Budyonnovsk zone, a part of Russia’s Lukoil group.
According to Russian and Ukrainian media, Stavrolen is one of Russia’s main producers of polyethylene and polypropylene.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports of the attack on Stavrolen. Stavropol’s governor did not disclose what was attacked in Budyonnovsk.
Russia typically gives limited details about the effects of Ukrainian strikes on its territory unless civilians or civilian infrastructure are hit.
Over the previous two nights, Russia’s units destroyed 35 Ukrainian drones over the Moscow region, the Russian defense ministry said. There was no damage reported.
Ukraine targets Moscow with drones for third straight night, Russia says
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Ukraine targets Moscow with drones for third straight night, Russia says
- Kyiv has kept up long-range drone strikes on Moscow and other Russian regions in recent months, saying the aim is to hit military and industrial assets, sap Russia’s war economy and show Russians the conflict is no longer distant
French minister pledges tight security at rally for killed activist
- Deranque’s death has fomented tensions ahead of municipal elections next month and presidential polls next year
- Macron has said there was no place in France “for movements that adopt and legitimize violence“
LYON: French police will be out in force at a weekend rally for a slain far-right activist, the interior minister said Friday, as the country seeks to contain anger over the fatal beating blamed on the hard left.
Quentin Deranque, 23, died from head injuries after being attacked by at least six people on the sidelines of a protest against a politician from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party in the southeastern city of Lyon last week.
His death has fomented tensions ahead of municipal elections next month and presidential polls next year, in which the far-right National Rally (RN) party is seen as having its best chance yet at winning the top job.
President Emmanuel Macron, who is serving his last year in office, has said there was no place in France “for movements that adopt and legitimize violence,” and urged the far right and hard left to clean up their act.
Deranque’s supporters have called for a march in his memory on Saturday in Lyon.
The Greens mayor of Lyon asked the state to ban it, but Interior Minister Laurent Nunez declined to do so.
Nunez said he had planned an “extremely large police deployment” with reinforcements from outside the city to ensure security at the rally expected to be attended by 2,000 to 3,000 people, and likely to see counter-protesters from the hard left show up.
“I can only ban a demonstration when there are major risks of public disorder and I am not in a position to contain them,” he told the RTL broadcaster.
“My role is to strike a balance between maintaining public order and freedom of expression.”
- ‘Fascist demonstration’ -
Jordan Bardella, the president of anti-immigration RN, has urged party members not to go.
“We ask you, except in very specific and strictly supervised local situations (a tribute organized by a municipality, for example), not to attend these gatherings nor to associate the National Rally with them,” he wrote in a message sent to party officials and seen by AFP.
LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard backed the mayor’s call for a ban, warning on X it would be a “fascist demonstration” that “over 1,000 neo-Nazis from all over Europe” were expected to attend.
Two people, aged 20 and 25, have been charged with intentional homicide in relation to the fatal beating, according to the Lyon prosecutor and their lawyers.
A third suspect has been charged with complicity in the killing.
Jacques-Elie Favrot, a 25-year-old former parliamentary assistant to LFI lawmaker Raphael Arnault, has admitted to having been present at the scene but denied delivering the blows that killed Deranque, his attorney said.
Favrot said “it was absolutely not an ambush, but a clash with a group of far-right activists,” he added.
Italy’s hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday said the killing of Deranque was “a wound for all of Europe.”
Referring to her comments, Macron said everyone should “stay in their own lane,” but Meloni later said that Macron had misinterpreted her comments.
Opinion polls put the far right in the lead for the presidency in 2027, when Macron will have to step down after the maximum two consecutive terms in office.
