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Ukraine targets Moscow with 200 drones in large-scale attack, mayor says

This handout photograph taken and released by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine on July 16, 2026, shows Ukrainian firefighters working to extinguish a fire at the site of a Russian air attack in Kyiv. (Handout/State Emergency Service of Ukrai)

(LONDON) — At least 200 Ukrainian drones were launched toward Moscow overnight into Thursday morning, the city’s Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said, as Kyiv continued its nightly long-range strike campaign deep into Russia.

From Wednesday evening until 9 a.m. local time on Thursday, “More than 200 drones were flying towards the Moscow region. Most of them were neutralized by air defense systems at a distance,” Sobyanin wrote in a post to Telegram. Ten drones “were destroyed as they approached Moscow,” the mayor said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces downed at least 375 Ukrainian drones overnight. The ministry said in a post to Telegram that drones were intercepted over 18 Russian regions — including Moscow — as well as Crimea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

Ukraine has been significantly expanding its drone campaign — referred to in Kyiv as “long-range sanctions” — in recent months, targeting major Russian cities, Russian oil infrastructure, military and logistics targets.

Ukraine has been significantly expanding its drone campaign — referred to in Kyiv as “long-range sanctions” — in recent months, targeting major Russian cities, Russian oil infrastructure, military and logistics targets.

The Russian Defense Ministry publishes only the number of Ukrainian drones and other projectiles it claims to have intercepted. Sobyanin releases real time statements when Ukrainian drones are reported shot down while heading toward the capital.

ABC News cannot independently verify the figures from either the ministry or the mayor. But the increasing scale and rate of such reports could be seen as indicative of Ukraine’s growing ability and willingness to target sites within Russia.

So far this year, Sobyanin has reported the downing of 1,420 Ukrainian drones on approach to Moscow, according to his Telegram posts, collated and analyzed by ABC News. Across all of 2025, Sobyanin only reported the downing of 734 Ukrainian drones near the city.

More than four years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made clear Kyiv’s intentions to return the war back to Russian soil. Key targets have included Moscow and the so-called “second capital” St. Petersburg.

“Our responses to Russia’s prolonging of the war and strikes on our cities and communities are completely fair,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram in May. “The Moscow region has Russia’s densest concentration of air defenses. But we are getting through,” he added.

Ukraine’s Wednesday night attacks also reportedly targeted the Engels-2 airbase in Saratov — a key hub for Russian long-range aviation, including strategic bombers. Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in a post to Telegram, “Engels is on fire.”

Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, meanwhile, announced that temporary flight restrictions were introduced at Saratov airport during the overnight attacks. Restrictions were also put in place at airports in Nizhny Novgorod, Penza, Samara, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl, Cherepovets and Gelendzhik.

Flights operating from all four of Moscow’s international airports were also put under temporary flight restrictions overnight, Rosaviatsiya said.

Russia continued its own long-range strike campaign against Ukraine. Ukraine’s air force said in a post to Telegram that Russia launched 18 missiles and 146 drones into the country overnight into Thursday morning, of which 12 missiles and 129 drones were intercepted, suppressed or failed to reach their targets.

Six missiles and 16 drones impacted across 15 locations, the air force said.

Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram that at least two people were killed by a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, with five other people injured. Other targeted regions included Kharkiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv and Donetsk, Zelenskyy said.

“Moscow is relying on terror through ballistic missiles and continues its attacks,” Zelenskyy wrote.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Ohio Rep. running for reelection comes face-to-face in court with the senator whose daughter he’s accused of abusing

Cleveland (CNN) — The senior US senator from Ohio sat with his daughter on a wooden bench in the hallway of the Cuyahoga County courthouse Wednesday, awaiting their turn as a judge in the room next door considered other domestic relations cases, then waiting again as that same judge swiftly declared a break in their case.Bernie Moreno had, for months, declined to wade publicly into the messy custody dispute that had consumed his family and threatened to upend the politics in his state. Now he sat in the thick of it, waiting to hear updates to a series of questions in the case, including whether a judge would grant a restraining order that his daughter’s lawyer had sought against his ex-son-in-law, the congressman Max Miller. Once the proceeding began, he moved to the wooden benches inside amid the press and other family members.Moreno’s daughter, Emily Moreno, was once married to Miller and has accused her now her-ex husband  of abuse, including an incident in which she says he held a gun to her. Miller has denied the assertions, saying his ex-wife is manipulative and suffers from mental illness. Her lawyer denies that.Their case might have been like any of the other domestic matters that went before Judge Debra Boros in the green-carpeted courtroom – except that Miller is also fighting for his political future in a reelection that has drawn national attention. Democrats are bullish they could flip the solidly red district, in part due to people like Moreno and Ohio’s other Republican senator – Jon Husted, who is also on the ballot in November – urging Miller to drop out.As the Morenos chatted on the bench, Miller walked by. The father and daughter bowed their heads.At issue Wednesday was a request not entirely at the heart of the matter.  Andrew Zashin, the lawyer for Emily Moreno, was seeking a restraining order, alleging that Miller grabbed him and another attorney’s bag last month after a hearing in their long-running legal battle. The attorney, filing on Emily Moreno’s behalf, said that it was the second instance in which the Congressman accosted his ex-wife’s legal team outside of court, something Miller’s team has denied.Ultimately the parties agreed to a mutual restraining order: Miller cannot speak to Emily Moreno’s lawyers outside of the court proceedings, and Emily Moreno cannot speak to Miller’s lawyers out of court proceedings.Both sides claimed victory.“What really happened here is their client left in a worse position than when she woke up this morning. When she woke up this morning, she didn’t have a restraining order prohibiting her from having any contact with counsel here,” Miller’s lawyer Larry Zukerman said, alleging that Emily Moreno “verbally attacked my co-counsel.”Emily Moreno’s lawyers deny that.“If that were the case, why didn’t they file something. Just more spin,” Zashin said, adding that he got the restraining order his team had sought.There was also a number of other matters to resolve, including whether an order would be issued in the case to keep court transcripts and depositions from being publicly available, and whether Miller’s private security would have to testify in the case. The judge punted both of those issues for a decision later.Boros was direct with those in the courtroom Wednesday, reminding all parties on two occasions that despite the emotions in the case, there was no excuse to violate court orders – an apparent nod to how the ordinary custody place is playing out in the national spotlight.Attention in the case intensified this month as more media outlets began reporting on allegations that had been part of court filings for months, and Miller faced increasing calls to drop his reelection bid ahead of a key deadline. President Donald Trump even privately told some allies that he didn’t believe Miller can win the race, given the accusations, one source familiar with the conversations previously told CNN.Miller, though, has remained defiant, insisting he would keep running even as the date for party leaders to replace him on the ballot passed. He previously told CNN that Trump had called him and relayed it would be a “tough race.” But Miller insisted he felt good about the decision to stay in.“My daughter is going to grow up one day, and she’s going to see all of this, and she’s not going to see that her father caved to political and social media pressures for something that he never did,” Miller said.After the court hearing on Wednesday, Miller’s attorney blasted the frenzy that has developed around the case, arguing it was unlike most of what he had seen in his time as an attorney.“They are making a political circus out of this,” Zukerman told CNN.The focus on Miller’s political and legal troubles, however, are far from over.After Miller asked the House Ethics Committee for an investigation that he said would clear his name, the committee announced it is “reviewing allegations that Representative Max Miller may have engaged in domestic violence and abuse or illegal drug use.”Miller, who worked as a White House staffer and served in the Marine Corps Reserve before joining Congress in 2023, admitted to last using illegal drugs “several years ago.” He denied currently using drugs but said he takes testosterone replacement therapy in a CNN interview earlier this month.Miller is also still contending with the fallout from his posting a link on social media to hundreds of messages, videos and images involving his ex-wife. While he framed the move as a bid to air out the facts and defend his daughter, the Dropbox folder that Miller shared with his nearly 60,000 followers included sensitive and unredacted details of his own family, including one image that depicted his toddler daughter nude. The photo was taken in the context of an inquiry into an injury the 2-year-old had suffered.Miller’s attorney Aaron Minc took responsibility for the disclosure publicly, and Miller called it “awful,” though he disputed the characterization of it as “shockingly reckless.”“My attorney took full responsibility,” Miller said. “There was never any intent to do that.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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