MOSCOW, Aug 21(V7N)-Russian air defenses intercepted and shot down 10 Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow, according to a statement by the city's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, early Wednesday. Sobyanin described the incident as one of the largest drone attack attempts on Moscow to date, but reported no damage or casualties.

Sobyanin credited Moscow's layered defense system for successfully repelling the attack. Drone strikes on Moscow have been relatively rare, though earlier this year, Russia claimed to have downed a drone near the capital, briefly causing disruptions at two major airports.

These drone attacks are part of a broader pattern of Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, which Kyiv has framed as retaliation for Russian assaults on Ukraine's own energy facilities since the conflict began in 2022. Recently, Ukrainian drones targeted an oil storage facility in Russia's Rostov region, igniting a significant fire that continued to burn for days, requiring the efforts of around 500 Russian firefighters to control.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly praised these strikes, viewing them as contributing to a "just end" to the conflict. The drone assaults coincide with Ukraine's ongoing cross-border operations in Russia's Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces claim to have taken control of more than 80 settlements.