Russia says it fended off Ukrainian drone attack targeting Moscow

Russia has repelled a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack whose targets included Moscow, the Defence Ministry said on Monday.

Forty combat drones were intercepted in the vicinity of the capital, "34 of which were flying towards Moscow," the ministry said.

There were initially no reports of damages or injuries.

Residents of the towns of Domodedovo, Podolsk, Dubna, Ramenskoye and Troitsk in the Moscow area reported explosions, according to Mash, a Russian Telegram channel.

The only images available showed a column of smoke near the town of Kommunarka.

According to the military, a total of 193 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russian territory overnight.

It is not possible to independently verify the information, but it does allow conclusions to be drawn about the scale of the attack.

According to local officials, one person was killed by the drones in each of Belgorod and Bryansk, two Russian regions bordering Ukraine.

Russia has been waging a devastating war against Ukraine for more than three and a half years.

Ukraine has since begun to launch drone attacks against Russia in a bid to push the focus to the aggressor's territory.

The attack on Moscow may have been a test of Russian air defences around the capital.