Russian forces have repelled a Ukrainian long-range combined drone and missile attack, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

During the assault, anti-aircraft defenses downed over 500 targets, mainly long-range kamikaze drones, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday. It added that the military destroyed 10 FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles and at least nine munitions fired by US-made HIMARS systems. 

The ministry described the attack as a foiled attempt by Kiev to divert the attention of its Western sponsors and common Ukrainians from large-scale Russian strikes earlier this week, as well as from the loss of Konstantinovka, a major city in northwestern Donbass.

Moscow announced the liberation of the city on Friday following weeks of intensive combat in the area. Konstantinovka is located at the southernmost tip of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, a string of cities in the northwest of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The agglomeration has been turned into a fortress by Kiev’s forces and remains the last major stronghold under Ukrainian control in the region. The city itself is located some 15 km southeast of Kramatorsk, with the small town of Druzhkovka lying in between.

The Russian long-range attack mentioned by the ministry occurred on Thursday night and was primarily focused on the Ukrainian capital. The authorities in Kiev described it as the largest-scale strike on the city since the conflict escalated in 2022. The targets listed by the Russian Defense Ministry included multiple plants producing missiles and drones, facilities manufacturing electronic warfare implements and components of other military hardware, a large fuel depot, and several gas facilities used to supply power to defense industry sites.

In June alone, the Russian anti-aircraft defenses intercepted around 13,000 incoming aerial targets over the country’s territory, the ministry said. “The production and launch support for these targets was handled by military departments and specialists from most European countries, including the UK, as well as other sponsors of the Kiev regime,” the ministry said, warning that any further attempts by Kiev to harm the Russian civilians will continue to invoke “appropriate retaliatory actions” by the country’s military.