A woman is killed near Moscow after more than 140 Ukrainian drones target Russia, officials say

Over 140 Ukrainian drones targeted multiple Russian regions overnight, including Moscow and surrounding areas, killing at least one person and injuring eight, officials said Tuesday, in one of the biggest drone attacks on Russian soil in the 2 1/2-year war.

A woman died in the town of Ramenskoye, just outside Moscow, where drones hit two multistory residential buildings and started fires, Moscow region Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said. Five residential buildings were evacuated due to falling drone debris, Vorobyov said.

The attack also prompted the authorities to shut three airports just outside Moscow — Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky — forcing 48 flights to be diverted to other airports, according to Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia.

The first two airports, which are Russia's second- and third-busiest, reopened in the morning but Zhukovsky was still closed in the afternoon because law enforcement officers were dealing with drone debris there, an airport spokesperson told the Interfax news agency.

It was the second massive Ukrainian drone attack on Russia this month. On Sept. 1, the Russian military said it intercepted 158 Ukrainian drones over more than a dozen Russian regions in what Russian media described as the biggest Ukrainian drone barrage since the start of the war. Russia’s Investigative Committee announced a criminal investigation into what it described as a terror attack.

Russia has pummeled Ukraine with missiles, glide bombs and its own drones, killing over 10,000 civilians since the war began in 2022, according to the United Nations.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force said Russia launched 46 Shahed drones and two missiles at Ukraine overnight. The air force said it downed 36 of the drones.

Ukraine has invested a lot of effort in developing domestic drone production, extending drones’ range, payload and uses. It has increasingly utilized drone blitzes to slow Russia’s war machine, disrupt Russian society and provoke the Kremlin.

Ukrainian officials have complained that weapons pledged by the country’s Western partners fall short of what their military needs and commonly arrive long after promised. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged defense companies to increase their output.

On the battlefield's 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, Ukrainian troops are up against Russia's larger and better-equipped army. The two sides are especially contesting parts of eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, fighting over towns and villages that are bombed-out wrecks, while Ukraine last month launched a bold incursion into Russia's Kursk border region.

In Moscow on Monday night, drone debris fell on a private house on the outskirts of the city, but no one was hurt, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. He counted over a dozen drones heading toward Moscow that were shot down by air defenses as they were approaching the city.

Overall, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it “intercepted and destroyed” 144 Ukrainian drones over nine Russian regions, including those on the border with Ukraine and those deeper inside Russia.

Ukrainian officials declined to comment on the attack.

As the war drags on, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been expanding his alliances:

The Russian military on Tuesday began massive naval and air drills, involving over 90,000 troops and over 400 warships, that China will also take part in, the Defense Ministry said.

Putin is also beefing up his military arsenal with Iranian ballistic missiles, the United States and Britain said Tuesday.

Moscow and the surrounding region have often come under attack throughout the war.

In May 2023, Russian officials said Ukraine tried to attack the Kremlin with drones which lightly damaged the roof of the palace that includes one of Putin’s official residences.

In August 2023, a drone attack on Moscow’s prestigious business district blew out part of a section of windows on a high-rise building and sent glass cascading to the streets, unsettling Muscovites. The attacks exposed gaps in the city and region’s air defenses.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

People gather to talk with local officials at the site of the damaged multi-storey residential building, following an alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Ramenskoye, outside Moscow, Moscow region, Russia, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo)

In this photo taken from video released by Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev official telegram channel, Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev, back to the camera, visits a wounded man after an alleged Ukrainian drone attack on multi-storey residential building prior to be transferred to a Moscow's hospital, in Ramenskoye, outside Moscow, Moscow region, Russia, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev official telegram channel via AP)

In this photo taken from video released by Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev official telegram channel, medical workers roll on a stretcher with a wounded man to a helicopter and transfer him to a Moscow's hospital, after an alleged Ukrainian drone attack on multi-storey residential building in Ramenskoye, outside Moscow, Moscow region, Russia, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev official telegram channel via AP)

A view of the site of the damaged multi-storey residential building, following an alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Ramenskoye, outside Moscow, Moscow region, Russia, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo)

A view of the site of the damaged multi-storey residential building, following an alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Ramenskoye, outside Moscow, Moscow region, Russia, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo)

Police cars are parked at the site of the damaged multi-storey residential building following an alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Ramenskoye, outside Moscow, Moscow region, Russia, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo)

A view of the site of the damaged multi-storey residential building following an alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Ramenskoye, outside Moscow, Moscow region, Russia, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo)

A view of the site of the damaged multi-storey residential building with the children's playground, foreground, following an alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Ramenskoye, outside Moscow, Moscow region, Russia, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo)

A view of the site of the damaged multi-storey residential building following an alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Ramenskoye, outside Moscow, Moscow region, Russia, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo)

This photo released by Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev official telegram channel shows the site of the damaged multi-storey residential building following an alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Ramenskoye, outside Moscow, Moscow region, Russia, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev official telegram channel via AP)

This photo released by Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev official telegram channel shows the site of the damaged multi-storey residential building following an alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Ramenskoye, outside Moscow, Moscow region, Russia, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev official telegram channel via AP)

This photo released by Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev official telegram channel shows the site of the damaged multi-storey residential building following an alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Ramenskoye, outside Moscow, Moscow region, Russia, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev official telegram channel via AP)

MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — Germany on Saturday was still in shock and struggling to understand the suspect behind the attack in the city of Magdeburg.

Identified by local media as 50-year-old Taleb A., a psychiatry and psychotherapy specialist, authorities said he has been living in Germany for two decades. He was arrested on site after plowing a black BMW into a Christmas market crowded with holiday shoppers Friday evening, killing at least five people and wounding about 200 others.

Prominent German terrorism expert Peter Neumann posted on X that he had yet to come across a suspect in an act of mass violence with that profile.

Taleb’s X account is filled with tweets and retweets focusing on anti-Islam themes and criticism of the religion while sharing congratulatory notes to Muslims who left the faith. He also described himself as a former Muslim.

He was critical of German authorities, saying they had failed to do enough to combat the “Islamism of Europe.”

He has also voiced support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Some described Taleb as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. Recently, he seemed focused on his theory that German authorities have been targeting Saudi asylum seekers.

Neumann, the terrorism expert, wrote: “After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore. But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that really wasn’t on my radar."

On Saturday, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters: “At this point, we can only say for sure that the perpetrator was evidently Islamophobic – we can confirm that. Everything else is a matter for further investigation and we have to wait.”

A German-based organization called Athiest Refugee Relief said the alleged attacker was not a part of the group and claimed that he made “numerous accusations and claims” against it and former board members, which it said were false.

“We distance ourselves from him in the strongest terms," the group said in a statement on its website, adding that members of Atheist Refugee Relief filed a criminal complaint against him in 2019 following “the most foul slander and verbal attacks."

An image taken from a video shows police officers arresting a suspect after car drove into a crowd at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (TNN/DPA via AP)

A person stands by flowers and candles placed outside St. John's Church near a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)