Moscow mayor says more than 50 drones intercepted by Russia
Russian air defence units have intercepted more than 50 drones heading for Moscow over a period of about 15 hours, mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
The running total of drones downed between about 11am (0800 GMT) on Thursday and 2am on Friday exceeded 50, Sobyanin said in a long series of dispatches on Telegram announcing the interception of drones throughout Thursday.
Russia’s defence ministry said it would observe a three-day ceasefire starting at midnight on the night of 7 May to 8 May until 10 May in connection with commemorations of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
Emergency crews were examining debris on the ground, he said.
Russia’s defence ministry, posting separately on Telegram, said 95 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted over a four-hour period ending at midnight in various regions of central and southern Russia.
Arpan Rai8 May 2026 04:16
Briefing: What we know on the 1,534th day of Ukraine war
- With hours to go for Russian president Vladimir Putin’s Victory Day parade in Moscow, Russian officials say more than 50 drones headed for the capital have been destroyed and nearly 100 drones attacked Russia till midnight
- Ukraine’s Zelensky calls out “strange and inappropriate” logic of Putin to hold his “parade, to go out onto the square safely for an hour once a year, and then continue killing, killing our people and waging war”
- Ukraine’s top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, lands in Miami for meetings with US negotiators on moving toward a peace accord, Zelensky says
Arpan Rai8 May 2026 04:09
