Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kremlin threatens UK over Kyiv’s ‘use of British drones’ in record attacks

A major swarm of at least 620 drones was ‌heading for the region ​surrounding the Russian capital between ‌Monday evening ⁠and 5am (0200 GMT), said mayor Sergei ⁠Sobyanin.

He said Moscow was temporarily restricting flights ‌at ​its airports.

Russian downed 180 drones in the Moscow region overnight, ⁠said Sobyanin, confirming one of the biggest Ukrainian air attacks on the capital.

Drones hit a warehouse of Russian e-commerce ⁠company Wildberries and other facilities ​near ⁠Moscow, regional governor ‌Andrei Vorobyov said separately, adding that at least three people, including a ‌10-year-old girl, were injured ‌in the region.

The Kremlin has built and expanded at least 10 new bases with at least 59 new launch rails, according to an investigation by The Telegraph using satellite imagery and leaked documents.

The bases are designed to fire large numbers of jet-powered drones that can overload Ukrainian air defences as Moscow bombards military and civilian targets across the country.

But situated along its borders with Ukraine and Belarus, the hi-tech drones will also be able to reach Kyiv’s allies in Nato, the report said.

A drone has hit a warehouse of Russian e-commerce company Wildberries near Moscow and caused a fire at the site, regional governor Andrei Vorobyov said.

He said the fire has now been extinguished but the drone attack damaged other buildings, including private houses, apartment buildings, shops and a power station.

At least three people were injured in the attack, he said.

In the past month, Ukraine has hit at least seven of the 10 largest Wildberries warehouses, which it says is complicit in Moscow’s war against Kyiv.

Britain has said it stands united with Ukraine against Russia’s aggression after Moscow fumed over British-made drones being used in strikes on Russia.

The Russian embassy in the UK on Monday accused London of complicity in aiding Ukraine with drones that are hitting targets deep inside Russian territory.

The UK, it said, is “deliberately opting for an escalation of the Ukraine crisis”.

“In doing so, the United Kingdom is acting as an accomplice and co-perpetrator of the bloody crimes and terrorist attacks,” the Russian Embassy to the UK said.

It added: “London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer,” and the deeper its involvement in the conflict, “the higher the price it will pay”.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) told BBC News that Britain stands “shoulder to shoulder” with Ukraine.

“Russia should be in no doubt about the resolve of this Government to stand against Russian aggression, in Ukraine and against the UK and our allies,” the spokesperson said.

The UK was “committed to providing the equipment Ukraine needs to defend itself against [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’s illegal invasion,” they said.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has hailed North Korea’s role in fighting to eject Ukrainian forces from the Kursk region, writing in a letter that they succeeded in driving out a “Ukrainian Nazi clique”.

North Korea and Russia ‌are working to ‌establish a “new and righteous world order,” Lavrov wrote in a letter to North Korean foreign minister Choe Son Hui, according to the North’s state news agency KCNA this morning.

Pyongyang has deployed troops to Russia since late 2024, when it helped Moscow retake a portion of Kursk that had been captured by a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Vladimir Putin’s regime routinely calls the Ukrainian administration “neo-Nazis,” even though the country has a Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust and who heads a Western-backed, democratically elected government.

Putin has vowed to fight on in Ukraine until Moscow secures the country’s “demilitarisation”, “denazification” and neutrality, unless Kyiv accepts a deal that achieves those goals.

The chief economist of a Russian state development bank has been fired after reportedly drawing comparisons between Russia’s present day economy and the 1917 revolution.

Andrei Klepach, one of Russia’s most prominent macroeconomists who worked for VEB, made the remarks to a financial forum in May. They were reported by Russian media only last week.

He warned that the country was falling behind the West and China and suffering mounting economic damage from the war in Ukraine, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Russian forces have downed at least 180 drones in the Moscow region overnight, the capital’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in the early hours today.

Overall, ‌620 drones ‌were heading ⁠for the region surrounding the Russian capital between Monday evening ‌and 5am, he said.