Moscow says nearly 100 drones shot down as strikes disrupt airports and railways across western Russia
Drone attacks overnight on July 27 prompted flight disruptions at multiple airports across western Russia, including in St. Petersburg, Volgograd, and Kaluga, local officials and Russian media reported.
Russia has reported a growing number of drone incursions into its territory in recent months. While Kyiv has been targeting infrastructure critical to Russia's war effort, Moscow has significantly intensified missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, frequently targeting civilian infrastructure and causing numerous civilian casualties.
In Leningrad Oblast, dozens of flights were delayed at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg after local authorities reported a wave of drone interceptions in the early hours.
Governor Alexander Drozdenko confirmed that drones were downed in several districts, with debris reportedly falling in residential and industrial zones.
Drozdenko claimed that Russian air defenses intercepted "more than a dozen" Ukrainian drones. In Lomonosovsky district, according to Drozdenko, debris from an intercepted drone injured one person.
In Russia's Volgograd Oblast, drone debris reportedly damaged a railway's overhead power supply system, disrupting electrical infrastructure.
Governor Andrei Bocharov blamed Ukraine for the attack but reported no injuries. Local Telegram channels shared footage suggesting a substation fire may have contributed to the outage.
The Privolzhskaya Railway reported that train service was delayed at Zhutovo Station due to falling drone debris. Trains connecting southern resort towns and central Russian cities were affected by delays of over two hours.
Kaluga Oblast, located southwest of Moscow, was also targeted, with flights reportedly disrupted at the regional airport. Other affected airports included Volgograd and Pulkovo, where at least 70 flights were reportedly delayed.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed its air defenses intercepted or destroyed a total of 99 drones overnight. Among them were 36 launched at Bryansk Oblast, 21 at Smolensk, 10 at Kaluga, and nine each at Volgograd and Rostov.
Additional drones targeted occupied Crimea, Voronezh, Kursk, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Oryol, Tambov, and the Black Sea coastal area.
Ukraine has not officially commented on the attack. The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify the reports.
