Published on 6/22/2026
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Last update: 09:12 (Mecca time)
On Monday, Russian authorities briefly closed the four main airports in Moscow after intercepting a large wave of drones launched by Ukrainian forces.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that air defense systems destroyed 59 drones heading towards the Russian capital, while aviation authorities announced the reopening of airports later after a temporary suspension of flights.
The attack comes at a time when Kiev has intensified the use of long-range drones in response to Russian strikes targeting its cities.
In the Crimean Peninsula, the head of the Moscow-appointed administration, Sergei Aksyonov, announced that 4 people were killed and 28 others were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack targeting the Kerch region.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said that its forces shot down or intercepted 407 Ukrainian drones over various Russian regions, including the capital, Moscow, and the skies of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
In eastern Ukraine, pro-Russian authorities in the Donetsk People’s Republic reported that Ukrainian forces launched 11 attacks during the past 24 hours, killing two people and wounding 6 others, including two children, according to official data.
Russian attacks
On the other hand, the Ukrainian authorities announced that a 14-year-old boy was seriously injured as a result of a Russian drone attack that targeted the city of Hlokhiv in the Sumy region, northeast of the country.
The head of the region’s military administration, Oleh Hryhorov, said that the attack damaged a 5-story residential building and a number of private homes, and led to a fire breaking out in a residential area.
In the south of the country, the military administration in Odessa reported that Russian forces launched a strike with an “Iskander” ballistic missile targeting an agricultural facility, killing one person and wounding three others.
She added that the attack caused the destruction of a warehouse and the fire of vehicles and fuel tanks.
The city of Odessa also witnessed a power outage in large areas of the city center following an emergency at the thermal power station, according to the city council, which confirmed that maintenance teams are working to restore electrical supply and complete repairs during the day.
At the international level, the Ukrainian News Agency reported that German and French legislators intend to push for more stringent measures against what is known as the Russian “shadow fleet” used to transport oil, including intensifying inspections and detention of ships violating international regulations, as well as increasing diplomatic pressure on countries whose flags these ships fly.
The proposal is expected to be presented during a meeting of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly.
“We have no answer at the United Nations.”
In the United Nations file, Moscow accused the international organization of not being neutral in dealing with the war in Ukraine.
Director of the International Organizations Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry, Kirill Logvinov, said that his country is in regular contact with United Nations officials regarding what he described as the bias of the United Nations Secretariat in the Ukrainian crisis, adding that these Russian reservations “fall on deaf ears.”
Logvinov also called on the next Secretary-General of the United Nations to address what he considered an imbalance within the General Secretariat and to end Western hegemony over leadership positions, considering that this reality undermines the organization’s ability to play a mediation role in international conflicts and affects its neutrality and credibility.
