Defence ministry says 48 drones were destroyed in over five hours on Saturday; Kyiv’s top general warns of possible new Russian offensive in Kharkiv region. What we know on day 1,229
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Russian air defences shot down four Ukrainian drones headed for Moscow on Saturday, the city’s mayor said, while one of the capital’s main airports temporarily halted outgoing flights. Sergei Sobyanin said emergency services were working at the sites of the downed drones, but gave no information on potential damage. Officials at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport reported delays in departures after flights were temporarily paused. Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsiya said the measures were taken in response to “restrictions” over the capital’s airspace as well as strong winds. Rosaviatsiya said incoming and outgoing flights at airports in several other Russian cities were also temporarily halted, including at St Petersburg’s Pulkovo, citing safety concerns.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Telegram that air defence units had destroyed 48 Ukrainian drones over a five-hour period on Saturday evening. Those included five drones in the region surrounding Moscow, two of which were headed for the capital. The ministry said the total included 17 drones over Bryansk region on the Ukrainian border and 11 in the adjacent Oryol region. The governor of Belgorod region on the border said four Ukrainian drones had injured a bus driver and a man driving a car. An earlier defence ministry report said 94 drones had been destroyed over Russia overnight on Saturday and 45 more in just under six hours during the day.
Ukraine’s special forces struck Russia’s Borisoglebsk military airfield in the Voronezh region on Saturday, hitting a glide bomb store and a trainer aircraft. In a statement on social media, the Ukrainian military said other aircraft were also likely hit in the south-western Russian region, without giving details. “This airfield is the home base of enemy Su-34, Su-35S and Su-30SM aircraft,” the statement said. The governor of Voronezh, Alexander Gusev, wrote on Telegram that more than 25 drones were destroyed overnight over the region. He said a power line was temporarily damaged, but made no mention of a military airfield, which is about 300km from the Ukrainian border.
The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, unilaterally halted an agreed shipment of military aid to Ukraine due to baseless concerns that US stockpiles of weapons have run too low, it has been reported. The Guardian’s Oliver Milman writes that a batch of air defence missiles and other precision munitions were due to be sent to Ukraine under a promise made during Joe Biden’s administration last year, but the Pentagon halted the shipment – reportedly a decision made solely by Hegseth. However, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell seemed to confirm that there is no current shortage of arms for US forces. “Let it be known that our military has everything that it needs to conduct any mission, anywhere, anytime, all around the world,” he said.
Ukraine’s top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi has warned of a possible new Russian offensive in the north-eastern Kharkiv region. “I dedicated two days to working with units in Kharkiv region,” Syrskyi wrote on Telegram. He said he spent the time talking to commanders, studying the situation in the area and the needs of troops there. “The Russians are looking to press with numbers, but we have to be ready, use appropriate tactical and technological solutions not to allow the [Russians] to move forward,” he said. Russian forces have already pushed into northern Ukraine’s Sumy region over the past months, carving out a small foothold there.
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