Ukrainian drones target Moscow as foreign leaders arrive for Red Square parade

Attacks by Ukrainian long-range drones caused flight disruption at Moscow’s main airports for a third straight day on Wednesday as Russia prepared to receive the Chinese president and other foreign leaders for the annual Victory Day military parade in Red Square.

Russian flag carrier Aeroflot on Wednesday morning canceled more than 100 flights to and from Moscow. More than 140 Aeroflot flights also were delayed because of what officials described as the Ukrainian drone threat and amid heightened security measures around the Victory Day events.

Russian air defenses repelled an attack by nine drones close to the Russian capital, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in the early hours of Wednesday. In the evening, Sobyanin reported thwarting 15 more drones targeting Moscow, as flights were restricted in Moscow’s airports once again.

Though Ukrainian drones have targeted Moscow in the past, the sustained attacks appeared designed to disrupt preparations for the 80th anniversary celebrations marking victory over Nazi Germany in World War II — Russia’s biggest secular holiday of the year.

The repeated assaults could unnerve Russians, who have been told by President Vladimir Putin that the more than three-year war with Ukraine is going well, as well as potentially embarrass him in front of his illustrious guests.

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Security is expected to be tight for Friday’s centerpiece parade. Foreign dignitaries, including China’s President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, arrived on Wednesday.

Russia plans a unilateral 72-hour ceasefire to coincide with the celebrations in Moscow. In March, the United States proposed a 30-day truce in the war, which Ukraine accepted, but the Kremlin has held out for ceasefire terms more to its liking.

Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday that the U.S. appreciated Ukraine’s willingness for a ceasefire, but the U.S. is trying to move beyond that. “What the Russians have said is ‘a 30-day ceasefire is not in our strategic interests.’ So we’ve tried to move beyond the obsession with the 30-day ceasefire and more on the, what would a long-term settlement look like?” he said.

Vance said that the next steps are to have the Russians and Ukrainians directly negotiating.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last weekend that his country cannot provide security assurances to foreign officials planning to visit the Moscow events. Russia could stage provocations and later attempt to blame Ukraine, he said.

“Our position is very simple: we cannot take responsibility for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation,” he said. “They are the ones providing your security, and we will not be offering any guarantees.”

Zelenskyy said that he had instructed Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry to advise foreign delegations against visiting Russia during this period.

Russian flight restrictions

Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which border Russia and its Kaliningrad exclave, announced plans to close their airspace to the planes carrying Serbia’s and Slovakia’s leaders to Moscow this week for the celebrations out of safety concerns, officials there said.

“Who could deny that in such a quite active cyber background … that somebody will not use this as a possible provocation to create problems and risks for the flight of these people through the Republic of Lithuania,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said Wednesday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in comments to Russian state TV, called the move “a disgrace.”

Flight restrictions across Russia because of Ukrainian drone threats, including temporary closures at airports in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi and elsewhere, affected at least 350 flights and at least 60,000 passengers, the Russian Tour Operators Association said.

Russian public holidays in early May, including the days around Victory Day, is a popular time for many Russians to go on vacation and travel abroad.

Xi’s visit to Russia is his third since the Kremlin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Xi last visited in Moscow in March 2023 on a trip that offered an important political boost to Putin just days after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader on charges of alleged involvement in abductions of thousands of children from Ukraine. He also traveled to the Russian city of Kazan in September 2024 for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies.

The Kremlin announced Tuesday that Putin will travel to China at the end of August and beginning of September.

Since Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor, Moscow has drawn closer to China as Western countries have sought to isolate Putin diplomatically. Russia has become increasingly dependent economically on China because of Western sanctions.

Residential buildings hit

Meanwhile, Russia launched a ballistic missile and a barrage of drones at Ukraine’s capital before dawn on Wednesday, killing at least two people in apartment buildings, Ukrainian officials said. Eight people were also wounded in the attack, including four children, the Kyiv City Military Administration said in a post on Telegram.

Russian planes also dropped two glide bombs on a village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, killing two women, regional administration head Vadym Filashkin said.

Russia launched a total of four ballistic missiles and 142 drones at Ukraine overnight, Zelenskyy said.

At least one of the ballistic missiles and 28 drones were recorded in Kyiv’s airspace, authorities said. Air defense forces shot down the missile and 11 drones.

A five-story residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district in the center of the capital was hit by drone debris, sparking a fire in several apartments where the victims were found, he said. Four people, including three children, were hospitalized, while others received treatment on site.

In the Sviatoshynskyi district, a fire broke out across multiple upper-floor apartments of a nine-story building after an impact of drone debris, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration. Five people were rescued from the blaze.

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Michelle L. Price in Washington, Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Liudas Dapkus in Vilnius, Lithuania, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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A previous version of this story was corrected to change “Beijing” to “Putin” being isolated diplomatically by the West.