Russia

The drone attack in Moscow was a potent sign that the war is increasingly reaching the heart of Russia. It came as an aerial assault on Ukraine's capital left at least one person dead.

Follow live news updates on Russia's war in Ukraine.

Anatoly Kurmanaev, Ivan Nechepurenko, Marc Santora and Victoria Kim

At least eight drones targeted Moscow early Tuesday, according to the Russian authorities, the first attack to hit civilian areas in the Russian capital and a potent sign that the war is increasingly reaching the heart of Russia.

The assault came after yet another overnight bombardment by Russian forces of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, which has faced a barrage of attacks in recent weeks that have put the city on edge and tested the country's air defenses. Kyiv was attacked with at least 20 drones early Tuesday, leaving one person dead and unnerving exhausted residents.

The dueling strikes reflected the dialed-up tension and shifting priorities ahead of Ukraine's expected counteroffensive. Ukraine has increasingly been reaching far into Russia-held territory, while Moscow has been adjusting its tactics in an effort to inflict significant damage on Kyiv.

Tuesday's aerial assault on Moscow — in which at least three residential buildings sustained minor damage — comes weeks after a pair of explosions over the Kremlin, a bold strike aimed at President Vladimir V. Putin's seat of power. U.S. officials said the attack was most likely orchestrated by one of Ukraine's special military or intelligence units.

The Russian Defense Ministry blamed Ukraine for Tuesday's assault, describing the strike as a "terrorist attack" and saying that the drones had been intercepted. Mr. Putin briefly commented on the attack, telling a reporter that Russia's air defenses had proved adequate. "We have stuff to do," he said in a video clip published by state news media. "We know what needs to be done."

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, said Kyiv was not "directly involved" but was "happy" to watch. A spokesman for Ukraine's Air Force, which typically maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity over attacks in Russia, declined to comment.

Here are the latest developments:

U.S. officials said they were still gathering information, noting that "as a general matter" the United States does not support strikes in Russia but that Tuesday marked the 17th time this month that Moscow has attacked Kyiv.

Five of the drones that targeted Moscow on Tuesday were shot down and three others had their systems jammed, according to Russia's Ministry of Defense. The assault has raised further questions about Russia's air defenses after explosions were reported over the Kremlin this month, with nationalist commentators calling it a "psychological blow" to Russians.

Attacks on Russia reportedly continued along the border with Ukraine. An anti-Kremlin paramilitary group that this month staged an incursion from Ukrainian territory into southern Russia said that it had made "another successful crossing," while the governor of Russia's Belgorod region said a civilian had been killed by shelling he blamed on the Ukrainian Army. Those claims had not been independently verified.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, in Sweden for the start of a four-day visit to Nordic countries focusing on NATO's support for Ukraine, expressed confidence that Sweden would join the NATO alliance "in the weeks ahead." Another member, Turkey, has objected to Sweden's admission for more than a year.

Haley Willis, Marc Santora and Andrew E. Kramer contributed reporting.

Anushka Patil

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Tuesday that he had established five basic rules to avoid nuclear catastrophe at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and that he would publicly report any violations.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the I.A.E.A., briefed the U.N. Security Council on the rules, which are largely based on safety principles the agency established a year ago. The requirements are fairly straightforward — the first stipulates that "there should be no attack of any kind from or against the plant."

Russian forces have controlled the plant — Europe's largest — for more than a year. The plant is no longer producing electricity for outside use, but Ukrainian workers continue to perform essential functions, including operating critical cooling equipment.

Frontline fighting has repeatedly damaged the facility, disrupted its power supply and contributed to a staffing crisis that is "not sustainable," Mr. Grossi said on Tuesday.

Mr. Grossi's promise to report violations comes after months of unsuccessfully trying to establish a security zone around the plant, where the agency has stationed its own monitors. Even as Russia and Ukraine accused each other of causing damage and outages, Mr. Grossi largely avoided placing blame on either country while he sought to negotiate an agreement.

Mr. Grossi told the Council that the new rules had been established in consultation with Ukrainian and Russian officials at the "highest levels," but it remained unclear whether the two nations would abide by them.

The new rules say that the plant should not be used as a base for heavy weaponry or military personnel that could be used in an attack; that the plant's off-site power supplies should not be put at risk; that all structures and systems essential to the security of the plant's operations should be protected; and that no action should be taken to undermine the above security principles.

Ukraine and its allies have repeatedly accused Russia of using the plant as a staging ground for attacks, and officials in Kyiv have said that the Ukrainian workers at the plant were being forced to work at gunpoint.

Ukraine's state nuclear company, Energoatom, said on Tuesday that Russia was increasing pressure on workers at the plant to sign contracts with Russia's state nuclear firm, Rosatom, a process that began last year. If successful, it would bring the plant fully under Moscow's institutional, as well as security, control.

"The aggressors are torturing the workers. They beat several of them, forcing them to agree to cooperate," Energoatom said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app, adding that some Ukrainian workers had refused to sign the new contracts. It was not possible to confirm the accusations independently.

Russia has disconnected radiation monitoring sensors at the plant, according to U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive material. The officials said that the United States still has the ability to monitor the site remotely, including with sensors near the plant, and added that they were confident that they would be able to provide warning very quickly in the event of a leak.

Speaking after Mr. Grossi's briefing, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., denounced Russia's actions as a "clear escalation" of Moscow's efforts to "undermine Ukrainian sovereignty and authority" over the plant.

"And this undermines our ability to have confidence in the level of nuclear safety at the plant," she said.

The Ukrainian ambassador to the U.N., Sergiy Kyslytsya, told the Council after Mr. Grossi's briefing, that Ukraine supported Mr. Grossi's efforts to secure the nuclear facility but that his rules should have included a demand for its "full demilitarization and deoccupation."

The Russian ambassador to the U.N., Vassily Nebenzia, placed full blame on Ukraine for endangering the plant. Russia, he claimed, was already abiding by the I.A.E.A.'s rules.

Julian E. Barnes and Matthew Mpoke Bigg contributed reporting.

Evidence of drone attacks is based on videos posted on Telegram where The New York Times was able to verify the time and location of each video.

By Josh Holder and Haley Willis

Anushka Patil

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has presented the U.N. Security Council with a set of rules to avoid nuclear disaster at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The rules are fairly straightforward — one calls for "no attack of any kind, from or against the plant" — but they come after months of failed attempts to negotiate a secure zone around the facility.

Anushka Patil

The I.A.E.A.'s director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said the new rules were established in consultation with Ukraine and Russia. But it remains unclear whether the two nations have actually agreed to abide by them. After Mr. Grossi's statement, Russia's ambassador to the U.N. placed full blame on Ukraine for endangering the plant and categorically denied any responsibility.

Nick Cumming-Bruce

GENEVA — Russia's relentless bombardment of Ukrainian cities over the past 15 months included more than 1,000 strikes on health care facilities and services, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

The W.H.O. said it had verified 1,004 Russian attacks on health facilities since the full-scale invasion began in February of last year, more than it has recorded in any other humanitarian emergency. Those attacks killed 101 people, including medical workers and patients, and injured many more, the agency said.

"Attacks on health care are a violation of international humanitarian law," Jarno Habicht, the organization's representative in Ukraine, said in a statement. "They deprive people of the care they need and have wide-ranging, long-term consequences."

Attacks on other civilian infrastructure, like power plants, have also hindered Ukraine's health service from delivering care, Dr. Habicht said.

Despite the continued attacks, most health facilities have remained functional, even in hard-hit areas such as Kharkiv, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, he said. But the rising costs caused by the war have left many people struggling to afford treatment.

The W.H.O., a United Nations agency, is typically neutral on political issues. But last week at the World Health Assembly, its annual policymaking forum, its member countries voted in favor of a resolution condemning Russian attacks on health care facilities.

The 53 countries that make up the W.H.O.'s European region also backed the relocation of the regional office for noncommunicable diseases to the Danish capital, Copenhagen, from Moscow. Non-Russian staff members in the office had relocated last year after the invasion began, but Robb Butler, the executive director of W.H.O. Europe, said that it had formally notified Russia that the Moscow office would close no later than Jan. 1, 2024.

Brendan Hoffman

Over a hundred Ukrainian students and parents held a fundraising event for their school, in Kyiv's Obolon district, by selling everything from mini pizzas to cupcakes to trinkets and paintings.

Anatoly Kurmanaev and John Ismay

Tuesday's drone strike on Moscow further demonstrated the spread of the war in Ukraine to the Russian capital, putting a spotlight on the city's air defenses and the Kremlin's attempts to adapt to a new kind of conflict.

Since the 1980s, Moscow has been ringed by a complex air defense system known as Amur, which was designed to protect the capital from intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombers, a threat far different from the reality of Russia's modern war against Ukraine.

Ukraine has denied responsibility for Tuesday's drone attack and another this month that targeted the Kremlin, but such assaults have been increasing in frequency in Russian territory. This has forced Russia to adopt its defense systems to counter a kind of ordnance that is less lethal but much more numerous.

In January, Russia began stationing new military hardware around Moscow without official explanation, including on top of prominent buildings such as the Defense Ministry. Military experts identified the weapons as the S-400, Russia's most sophisticated surface-to-air missile system, and the Pantsir S-1, which in its most common form is a truck carrying a relatively simple antiaircraft missile launcher.

Pantsir missiles downed five of the eight drones that attacked Moscow on Tuesday morning, according to the Defense Ministry. A video posted on social media on Tuesday and verified by The New York Times showed a Pantsir system launching a missile on the outskirts of Moscow.

The other three drones, according to the Defense Ministry, were disabled by what it called "radio-electronic warfare." The ministry did not provide details, but starting in 2016 it has been installing an electronic jamming system known as Pole-21 on satellite towers. These systems block satellite navigation signals, causing drones and other electronically guided weapons to lose control.

As a result, Russian officials — including President Vladimir V. Putin — have tried to frame the attack on the capital as a triumph for Russian defenses.

"It's clear what needs to be done to increase the density of the capital's air defense systems," Mr. Putin said in response to the attack. "And we will do just that."

One potential issue: The effectiveness of the Pantsir and Pole systems declines greatly in densely populated areas saturated with satellite data, said Ruslan Pukhov, the director of the Moscow-based security research group CAST. To effectively counter drone attacks, he said, the Russian military must try to disable them before they reach city limits — a difficult task given the size of the country.

Defending airspace in urban areas is also more difficult than near the front lines, where most aircraft will be military. Around cities, soldiers have to track civilian aircraft, like airplanes and helicopters, while at the same time looking for radar reflections of much smaller aircraft, like unmanned drones.

"Previously, air defense systems near cities would tune out anything smaller than a helicopter," said Ian Williams of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. "Small drones may have a radar return the size of a goose, so if you tune your radars to look for enemy drones you’ll also see a lot of birds."

The Pantsir air-defense vehicles seen around Moscow came into service with the Russian Army in 2003, according to C.S.I.S., and have since been upgraded. Armed with short-range infrared-seeking missiles and a 30-millimeter gun directed by radar, the Pantsir was built to accompany mechanized forces like a tank column, Mr. Williams said, providing a "bubble" of protection as the convoy moves along.

They were designed and built before small drones became a major threat on the battlefield, Mr. Williams said, and although they do have some ability to shoot drones down, that is not what they were optimized to do. Attackers can also use terrain to mask the approach of low-flying aircraft, like drones, he added.

Those responsible for Tuesday's attack, he said, appeared to be "exploiting the limitations of the Pantsir and other air-defense systems around Moscow."

Oleg Matsnev and Riley Mellen contributed reporting.

Michael Crowley

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said during a visit to Sweden on Tuesday that he expected Sweden would join the NATO alliance "in the weeks ahead," overcoming more than a year of objections to its admission by NATO member Turkey.

Michael Crowley

Appearing with Sweden's prime minster, Ulf Kristersson, at an air base in the country's north, Mr. Blinken said he hoped Sweden would join NATO before a July alliance summit in Lithuania. Mr. Kristersson was also confident, referring to contributions Sweden will make to NATO "when we join the alliance."

Eric Schmitt

U.S. defense officials said the next round of weapons sent to Ukraine would include missiles for the Patriot air defense system and more rockets for the HIMARS mobile system. The $300 million military aid package could be announced as soon as Wednesday.

Matthew Mpoke Bigg

More than a year after Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, a series of embarrassing attacks on Russian soil have been a direct reminder that Moscow's territory is also vulnerable.

The latest attack on Russian soil came Tuesday, when drones left at least three residential buildings in Moscow with minor damage.

Such attacks have occurred sporadically since the war started, but they entered a new phase in December with a brazen drone assault on two military air bases deep inside Russia. A drone also hit an oil facility near an airfield in the Russian province of Kursk. And this month, a drone strike hit the Kremlin, an assault that U.S. officials said was most likely carried out by one of Kyiv's special military or intelligence units.

An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said Kyiv was not directly involved in Tuesday's strike but was pleased by it — the kind of language Ukraine typically uses about attacks in Russia.

Covert action by Ukraine has at times unnerved the Biden administration, but officials in Washington have been reluctant to speak about the issue publicly to avoid appearing to criticize the government in Kyiv or compromise sensitive military relationships. At the same time, some details of the terms on which the United States has supplied weapons to Ukraine have remained secret.

Tuesday's aerial assaults in Moscow are especially significant because they are the first to have hit civilian areas in the Russian capital.

U.S. officials are still gathering information about the latest strike, according to the State Department and the National Security Council. Officials said the United States did not generally support strikes inside Russia, but noted that Russia's aerial assault on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Tuesday was the 17th this month.

That had some Ukrainians taking grim pleasure in the assault.

"I’m happy," said Samir Memedov, 32, an account manager in Kyiv. He said he had been taking shelter in a metro station during attacks this week. "It is great that they can feel what we feel every day here."

Mr. Memedov said that, while he doubted that the attacks in Moscow fit into the Ukrainian military's strategy, they were satisfying since the Kremlin had claimed that it would capture Kyiv rapidly at the start of the invasion.

Russia is vulnerable to drone attacks in part because of its size — the border with Ukraine is more than 1,400 miles — but also because its air defense radars are designed to detect aircraft and missiles bigger than drones, according to Sam Bendett, an adviser on Russian Studies at CNA, a nonprofit research organization based in Virginia.

Apart from creating a sense of vulnerability in Russia, Ukrainian drone attacks would serve to test Moscow's air defense systems and identify potential weaknesses that could be exploited in further attacks, he said.

Drones have not been the only threat unnerving Russians. Like their counterparts across the border, the authorities in Russia's Kursk and Belgorod regions report near-daily cross-border shelling. Recent explosions have also damaged Russian infrastructure including trains and oil depots near the border.

U.S. officials also say they believe that the Ukrainians were responsible for an explosion that damaged a bridge between the Russian mainland and the illegally annexed region of Crimea, the assassination in August of the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, the killing last month of a pro-Russian blogger and a number of attacks in Russian towns near the border with Ukraine.

Last week, a rare cross-border assault in southern Russia by anti-Kremlin fighters stretched over the course of two days, potentially opening up a new set of battlefield problems.

Andrew E. Kramer

After Moscow was targeted with drones on Tuesday, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said Kyiv was not "directly involved," but was "happy" to watch. It was not immediately clear what types of drones were involved.

Ukraine similarly denied responsibility for a May 3 attack on the Kremlin, though U.S. intelligence officials said that one of Ukraine's special military or intelligence units most likely orchestrated the assault. American officials believe the two drones involved were launched from a short distance away, in or near Moscow.

Amid the continuing uncertainty about both attacks, the question remains whether Kyiv has drones with a range capable of reaching Moscow from Ukrainian territory, a distance of around 300 miles — and if so, what kind.

In December, exploding drones hit two military air bases that had been used by Russian airplanes launching missiles at Ukraine. One, the Dyagilevo base in the central Russian city of Ryazan, was about 100 miles from Moscow. Ukraine's government did not publicly acknowledge a role in those strikes.

Last fall, Ukraine's state-owned weapons maker, Ukroboronprom, said that it was close to developing a drone that could carry a 165-pound warhead more than 600 miles, putting Moscow well within range, and that it had completed tests of the weapon. Ukraine has not announced the use of such a long-range drone in combat.

Both Russia and Ukraine have jury-rigged a wide range of consumer drones to drop hand grenades, explode on impact or spot targets on the battlefield. The war in Ukraine has seen a flurry of adaptations of small craft, including quadro-copters with four rotors and fixed-wing drones, to spot artillery targets and drop grenades.

Ukraine has also flown a large, long-range Turkish-made military drone, the Bayraktar TB2, but its usefulness is limited by Russian air defense systems. Small drones flying at low altitudes and zigzagging over the battlefield are harder to shoot down.

Both Russia and Ukraine use attack drones, a class of weapons with a range from a few miles to a few dozen miles, also called loitering munitions that buzz over the battlefield until a target is found, then dive down and explode. Russia's Lancet attack drone has hit Ukrainian armored vehicles and artillery pieces. The United States provided the Ukrainian military a similar weapon, the Switchblade drone, which dives onto targets and self-destructs.

Hand-built attack drones are more common in the Ukrainian military, which has a vast array. They fall into two broad categories: drones that drop munitions and return to their operators, and those that fly into a target and explode.

These are made in garage workshops in a flourishing niche of innovation by Ukrainian soldiers and volunteers, who experiment with 3-D-printed materials, explosives and custom-built software to avoid Russian electronic countermeasures.

Among the hand-built weapons, high-end, heavy-lifting drones that drop bombs capable of destroying armored vehicles can cost as much as $20,000. Small exploding drones cost a few hundred dollars. The most common type, a small craft with four propellers, can carry about two pounds of explosives about four miles.

Anushka Patil

Ukraine has "the right to project force beyond its borders" to undermine Russian attacks, the British foreign minister, James Cleverly, said on Tuesday. Military targets beyond a nation's borders are "internationally recognized as being legitimate as part of a nation's self-defense," he added, while specifying that he did not have details about Tuesday's drone attacks in Moscow and was speaking more generally.

Eric Schmitt

U.S. officials are still gathering information about the drone attacks in Moscow, according to the State Department and the National Security Council. Both said in statements that the United States does not support strikes inside Russia "as a general matter," but noted that Tuesday marked the 17th time this month that Russia had struck Kyiv, frequently devastating civilian areas.

Nataliia Novosolova

Weeks of overnight aerial attacks are taking a toll on the residents of Ukraine's capital, with several describing exhaustion and heightened anxiety on Tuesday after yet another drone assault jolted them from their slumber.

The air-raid sirens that echoed through Kyiv, the capital, before dawn on Tuesday marked the 17th Russian attack on the city this month alone — all but one of which were launched at night.

"These attacks are very exhausting because we do not sleep at night," said Anastasia Yeremenko, 32. She said she was constantly worried — about her two children, about the dangers flying through the night sky, about where to hide.

"Even if I fall asleep, I have nightmares," she added.

Ms. Yeremenko had been on the street a day earlier during a rare daytime attack, and said it had been especially terrifying because she did not "even know where to run."

"At home I feel at least a little bit safe between the walls," she said.

The accumulation of stress is playing out in myriad ways, according to Oleksandr Petrenko, 52, an entrepreneur.

"People have become more irritated on the roads" since the air raids intensified, he said, adding: "I think everyone is tired. Against this background, there is more negativity."

Oksana, 33, a researcher, also acknowledged the widespread fatigue.

"I haven't been sleeping well for three weeks now," she said, requesting that only her first name be used because she works for the government.

Still, she professed that she had "gotten used to" the nighttime attacks, a sentiment shared by Oleksandr Masnyi, 19, who said the intensity of the attacks had not shaken him.

"I’ve been used to it since the first day," he said. "I don't care."

But Larysa Okolot, 77, described the months since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 as a "nightmare," even though she, too, was "getting used to it."

"I’m scared, but I’m more angry about it," said Ms. Okolot, a retiree. "I hate those who do this."

Erika Solomon

Germany's chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has spoken by phone with Zelensky, who briefed him on the latest Russian attacks, according to the chancellery. It said that Scholz reaffirmed Germany's support for Ukraine and that the two leaders "agreed to continue their constructive exchange."

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Putin has briefly commented on Tuesday's drone attack in Moscow, telling a reporter that Russia's air defenses had proved adequate. "We have stuff to do," he said in a video clip published by state news media. "We know what needs to be done."

Anatoly Kurmanaev

While Putin called the performance of Moscow's air defenses "satisfactory," he said there was room to improve. "It's clear what needs to be done to increase the density of the capital's air defense systems. And we will do just that," he said.

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin of Russia claimed that almost 1.5 million residents of the occupied areas of Ukraine had received Russian passports since October. His claims, which could not be independently verified, came weeks after President Vladimir V. Putin signed an edict declaring that all Ukrainians in occupied territory who refuse Russian passports could be relocated from their homes.

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Russian nationalist commentators said Tuesday that the first mass drone attack to strike Moscow highlights the government's inability to prepare the population for a prolonged conflict that is steadily crossing the nation's borders.

The flurry of drones that targeted the Russian capital on Tuesday morning caused minimal damage, shattering some windows in three residential buildings and lightly injuring two residents, according to local officials. The attack's biggest impact, however, is likely to be psychological, forcing Muscovites to confront the reality of Russia's war in Ukraine, which many have worked hard to block from their daily lives.

"If the goal was to stress the population, then the very fact that drones have appeared in the skies over Moscow has contributed to that," wrote Mikhail Zvinchuk, a pro-war Russian military blogger who posts under the moniker Rybar and has more than a million followers on the Telegram messaging app.

The head of the country's Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, said the attack highlighted Russia's technological lag in drone warfare, which he has previously said is shaping the conflict in Ukraine. He also used it to step up his attacks on Russian defense officials, whom he has long accused of incompetence.

"What should common people do when explosives-laden drones are crashing into their windows?" he said in an audio message posted on Telegram on Tuesday after the Moscow attack. Using at least six different expletives to describe Russian defense officials, he added: "The people have full right to ask them these questions."

The fact that some of the drones crashed in upscale neighborhoods gave particular resonance to Mr. Prigozhin's broadside. "Let your homes burn," he said, referring to military and political elites.

Pro-Kremlin propagandists tried to portray the muted public response to the drone strike as a show of Muscovites’ grit, and as being merely the latest in a long history of attacks suffered in the Russian capital throughout its history. Commentators, including Andrei Medvedev, a state media journalist and local Moscow lawmaker, argued that previous attacks have ended with Russian victories.

President Vladimir V. Putin briefly commented on Tuesday's drone attack, telling a reporter that Russia's air defenses had proved adequate. "We have stuff to do," he said in a video clip published by state news media. "We know what needs to be done."

The Kremlin's spokesman said only that the Defense Ministry had "acted well" in responding to the attack, declining to comment further in his daily call with reporters on Tuesday. Russian officials mimicked the Kremlin's line, with a governing party lawmaker, Andrei Gurulev, saying that Muscovites were more likely to get hit by an electric scooter than a drone in the city center.

The muted response added to a sense of what the Russian government's critics on the right have called a leadership vacuum after increasingly brazen attacks on Russian territory. Mr. Putin, for example, did not comment on last week's raid on the Belgorod region, which led to at least two days of heavy fighting.

"The strength of the psychological blow caused by the drone attack on Moscow is not in the scale of destruction, but in the fact that the nation's leadership has promised us not a war, but a special military operation," wrote Igor Girkin, a former paramilitary leader who had long called for an escalation of the war in Ukraine.

"Instead of an honest conversation with a nation, we get blurry consolations about Napoleon's conquest of Moscow: Don't worry, everything is going to plan," he wrote on Telegram on Tuesday. "What is the real plan then?"

Tatiana Stanovaya, a Russian political scientist based in Paris, said that a lack of wartime leadership was becoming increasingly glaring. "Everything is built on his often voiced idea of a ‘patient nation’ that understands everything and will endure anything," she wrote on Telegram on Tuesday, referring to Mr. Putin. "Let's see."

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Russian officials are mimicking the Kremlin's line in appearing to play down the drone attack on Moscow. A ruling party lawmaker, Andrei Gurulev, said Moscovites were more likely to get hit by an electric scooter than a drone in the city center. "We didn't do too badly today," he told state news media, referring to Russia's air defenses.

Anatoly Kurmanaev

President Vladimir V. Putin is yet to comment on the Moscow drone strike, extending his public silence on a series of increasingly brazen attacks within Russia.

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Tatiana Stanovaya, a Russian political scientist based in Paris, said the lack of wartime leadership from Putin was becoming increasingly glaring. "Everything is built on his often voiced idea of a ‘patient nation,’ that understands everything and will endure anything," she wrote on Telegram on Tuesday. "Let's see."

Anna Lukinova

Yulia Honcharova, a Kyiv resident, reacted to the news of the Moscow attack with a mix of anger and defiance. "I’m not among those who believe that we should bomb their residential quarters at night, but I do want them to feel what it is like to live under constant alarms like people live in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro," she said.

Anatoly Kurmanaev

The head of Russia's Wagner private military company, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, said the drone attack highlighted Moscow's technological shortcomings and used the episode to launch into another expletive-filled critique of Russia's defense officials — a frequent target of his tirades.

Michael Crowley

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken arrived in Sweden on Tuesday, kicking off a four-day visit to Nordic countries that is expected to focus on NATO's support for Ukraine and overcoming resistance from Turkey to the alliance's expansion.

The visit is a moment of celebration for the 31-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but also one of tension, with Sweden's hopes of following the newest member, Finland, into the alliance still uncertain.

After the invasion of Ukraine last year, Finland and Sweden broke with decades of neutrality and sought NATO membership in a blow to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who has called the alliance's expansion a grave threat to his country. In April, Finland won the unanimous approval required to become a member.

But Sweden's hopes for membership remain on hold, as Turkey's newly re-elected president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, complains that the country has been too tolerant of Kurdish nationalists and others he says are terrorists. Some analysts and U.S. officials say that Mr. Erdogan opposed Swedish membership in part to cast himself as tough on terrorism ahead of the election. He prevailed after a runoff vote on Sunday.

On Monday, President Biden told reporters that he had recently spoken to Mr. Erdogan to congratulate the Turkish leader on his re-election and had repeated his desire to resolve the question of Sweden's membership.

Mr. Biden said that Mr. Erdogan "still wants to work out something on the F-16s," a reference to fighter jets that Turkey wants to buy from the United States. Mr. Erdogan might be willing to approve Sweden's membership in return for a U.S. sale of the jets, analysts say.

Mr. Blinken will discuss the issue with senior government officials in Sweden, as well as with his NATO counterparts in Norway, setting the stage for a July summit of NATO leaders in Lithuania.

He will emphasize U.S. support for Sweden's membership, Dereck Hogan, the acting assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, told reporters on Friday.

From Sweden, Mr. Blinken plans to travel to Norway for an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers and then to visit Finland, where he will deliver a speech about Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In Finland, where Mr. Blinken will meet with the country's departing prime minister and foreign minister, his focus is likely to be on the country's new status as a NATO member that shares a more than 800-mile border with Russia.

Mr. Blinken plans to deliver a speech in Helsinki, Finland, meant to highlight Russia's strategic failures in Ukraine, probably including Finland's decision to join NATO after 74 years as an outsider, and U.S. efforts to support Ukraine's defense, according to a statement from a State Department spokesman.

Mr. Blinken was beginning his trip with a visit to the Swedish port town of Lulea, where he planned to lead the fourth meeting of the U.S.-E.U. Trade and Technology Council with Gina Raimondo, the commerce secretary, and Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative.

U.S. officials expect to make progress on issues including export controls on Russia and misuse of technology, Ruth Berry, an official in the State Department's Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, told reporters last week.

Ivan Nechepurenko and Anatoly Kurmanaev

Moscow came under a drone attack early Tuesday, according to Russian officials, the first strike to hit civilian areas in the capital and another sign that the war in Ukraine is increasingly touching the heart of Russia.

Here is what we know about the attack.

Explosions were reported in Moscow early on Tuesday morning, with Russia's Defense Ministry saying that at least eight drones had targeted the capital and the surrounding region.

All of the drones were intercepted, the ministry said in a statement, saying that electronic jamming measures forced some to deviate from intended targets and that others had been shot down outside the city limits by air defenses. It did not specify what the targets may have been.

Three residential buildings in Moscow were damaged by drones after they were intercepted, according to the office of the Russian prosecutor general. Some residents were briefly evacuated early Tuesday, said Sergei Sobyanin, the city's mayor.

Mr. Sobyanin said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that two people required medical attention but that no one was seriously injured.

Russia's Ministry of Defense blamed the Ukrainian government for what it described as a "terrorist attack."

A spokesman for Ukraine's Air Force, which typically maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity about any strikes on Russian territory, declined to comment on the attack. But Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, said Kyiv was not "directly involved" in the drone assault on Moscow, though was "happy" to watch.

Russia's Investigative Committee, the country's equivalent to the F.B.I., said it had started an inquiry into the attack.

The intended target of the drone attack was not immediately clear. Video verified by The New York Times shows a 25-story residential building on the southwestern outskirts of Moscow lightly scorched on the exterior. The wreckage of a drone wing is shown just outside the building.

Other videos verified by The Times were filmed eight miles away, outside a building where Russian news media reported that a drone had flown inside. The footage shows two apparent drone wings outside the residential building.

In additional video footage, a third building, also reported to have been hit by a drone, has a broken window. All three residential buildings in the videos are along the southwestern outskirts of Moscow in upper-middle-class areas of the city.

Moscow is about 310 miles from the border with Ukraine, and the attack on Tuesday was the first time that drones have hit residential areas of the city since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier this month, there were nighttime explosions over the Kremlin, which Russia said were a drone attack and an assassination attempt on President Vladimir V. Putin. On the day of the blasts, Mr. Zelensky publicly denied responsibility, asserting that Ukraine fights on its own territory. U.S. intelligence officials said that one of Ukraine's special military or intelligence units most likely orchestrated the attack, adding that they had "low" confidence that the Ukrainian government had directly authorized it.

American officials have in the past voiced concern that Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil could provoke Mr. Putin without having a direct effect on the battlefield — one reason that Washington has withheld from Ukraine weapons that could be used to strike deep into Russia.

The reality of the war in Ukraine has largely been perceived as distant for much of the Russian public, but the attacks on Moscow could change that and possibly even threaten overall support for Mr. Putin's handling of what the Kremlin has called the "special military operation."

One worry is that attacks in Russia could serve as a pretext for Mr. Putin to escalate the war in some way, such as striking key government buildings in Kyiv and trying to decapitate the Ukrainian government.

The Kremlin's reaction to Tuesday's drone attack was muted. Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesman, told reporters that the Defense Ministry "acted well" in responding to the attack, but declined to comment further. Mr. Putin briefly commented on the attack, telling a reporter that Russia's air defenses had proved adequate. "We have stuff to do," he said in a video clip published by state news media. "We know what needs to be done."

Anatoly Kurmanaev

The Kremlin's reaction to the drone attack has been muted. Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, told reporters that Russia's Defense Ministry "acted well" in responding to the attack, but declined further comment.

Marc Santora

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Ukraine was not "directly involved" in the drone assault on Moscow but was "happy" to watch the turmoil inside Russia. In an appearance on national television, Podolyak predicted that such attacks would increase.

Brendan Hoffman

Kyiv residents cleared debris from the overnight attack and people whose apartment buildings were affected filled out police paperwork at a nearby playground.

Matthew Mpoke Bigg

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Twitter that he had spoken by telephone on Monday with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, congratulating him on his re-election. Erdogan, who helped broker a deal that enables Ukraine to export its grain across the Black Sea, is one of the few leaders who speaks regularly to both Zelensky and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

У телефонній розмові привітав @RTErdogan із перемогою на виборах. Відзначив особисту роль Президента 🇹🇷 у продовженні зернової ініціативи, що є вагомою складовою світової продовольчої безпеки. Співпраця 🇺🇦 й 🇹🇷 важлива та дієво сприяє добробуту наших народів і міжнародній…

Marc Santora

A 33-year-old woman was killed by falling debris during the overnight drone attack in Kyiv and at least 13 people were injured, Ivan Vyhivskyi, the acting chief of the National Police, said in a statement.

Cassandra Vinograd

President Biden was asked on Monday for his response to Russia's recent spate of attacks targeting Kyiv. "It's not unexpected," he told reporters. "That's why we got to continue to give Ukraine all that it needs."

Ivan Nechepurenko

Russia's Investigative Committee, the country's equivalent to the F.B.I., said it had launched an inquiry into the drone attack on Moscow. The agency said that several buildings in Moscow sustained "insignificant damage," and that no injuries were reported.

Ivan Nechepurenko

The Russian Defense Ministry said that eight Ukrainian drones had reached Moscow on Tuesday in what it described as a "terrorist attack." Russian forces intercepted all of the drones, with three being suppressed by electronic measures. Additionally, the Pantsir-S missile system shot down five more drones in the Moscow region, near the Russian capital, the ministry said.

Andrew E. Kramer

Attacks on Russia reportedly continued along the border with Ukraine. An anti-Kremlin paramilitary group that earlier this month staged an incursion from Ukrainian territory into southern Russia said that it had attacked the border. "Another successful crossing" of the border, the group, the Russian Volunteer Corps, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Andrew E. Kramer

In a sign of how broad the overnight attack was on Kyiv, Ukrainian officials reported that more than 50 buildings and vehicles were damaged in Kyiv's suburbs from falling debris. The chief of police for the Kyiv region, Andriy Nebytov, said four people in suburban Kyiv were wounded by shrapnel.

Marc Santora

Kyiv's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, appeared on national television shortly after residents of the capital were jolted from bed by a third wave of attacks in 24 hours. He posed a question that captured the anger of many in the city. "If the Russians can make Kyiv a nightmare, why do the people of Moscow rest?"

Marc Santora

Not long after Klitschko spoke, Russian officials said that they shot down several drones approaching Moscow. The Ukrainian military had no comment on the reports from Russia and has maintained a policy of silence on strikes outside Ukraine.

Haley Willis

Video verified by The New York Times shows a 25-story residential building on the southwestern outskirts of Moscow lightly scorched on the exterior. The wreckage of a drone wing is shown just outside the building.

Haley Willis

Other videos verified by The Times were filmed eight miles away, outside a building where Russian news media reported that a drone had flown inside. The footage shows two apparent drone wings outside the residential building.

Haley Willis

In additional video, a third building, also reported to have been hit by a drone, has a broken window. All three residential buildings in the videos are along the southwestern outskirts of Moscow in upper-middle-class areas of the city.

Andrés R. Martínez

Earlier this month, there were nighttime explosions at the Kremlin, which Russia said were an assassination attempt on President Vladimir V. Putin. Ukraine has not commented on the strikes. But U.S. intelligence officials said, with "low" confidence, that Ukraine was behind the attack.

Andrés R. Martínez

Moscow is about 310 miles from the border with Ukraine. While there have been drone explosions near the capital, this appears to be the first time that drones have hit a building inside the city.

Marc Santora and Victoria Kim

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia targeted the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, with yet another wave of attack drones early Tuesday, killing at least one person, setting residential buildings ablaze and extending a day of terror for the city's residents.

For the second night in a row and the 17th this month, explosions in different parts of Kyiv jolted people out of bed and sent them scurrying for cover as Moscow launched a new assault on the city of 3.6 million.

Ukraine's Air Force said on Tuesday that air defense teams shot down 29 of 31 Iranian-made drones launched by Russia overnight, with most targeting Kyiv.

A 33-year-old woman was killed by falling debris during the attack and at least 13 people were injured, Ivan Vyhivskyi, the acting chief of the National Police, said in a statement.

While Kyiv has been attacked since the first days of the war, the pace and intensity of the assaults in May have been jarring even for civilians now used to spending long hours in bomb shelters and sleepless nights huddled in corridors.

Kyiv's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, in an appearance on national television, captured the anger of many in the city. "If the Russians can make Kyiv a nightmare, why do the people of Moscow rest?"

Not long after Mr. Klitschko spoke, Russian officials accused Ukraine of launching a drone attack on Moscow. There was no comment from Ukraine's military, which has maintained a policy of strategic ambiguity about strikes in Russia. But Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, said that Kyiv was not "directly involved."

Yulia Honcharova, a Kyiv resident, reacted to the news of the Moscow attack with a mix of anger and defiance. "I’m not among those who believes that we should bomb their residential quarters at night, but I do want them to feel what it is like to live under constant alarms like people live in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro," she said.

Ukrainian officials have said the concentrated attacks on Kyiv are most likely aimed at wearing down air defense systems so as to make the capital more vulnerable and at exhausting civilians.

Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv military administration, said that people in the city were reeling from attacks that were separated by hours, not days.

"In the last 24 hours, the enemy has already carried out three attacks," he said on Tuesday morning.

Before dawn on Tuesday, Russia targeted Kyiv with more than three dozen drones and cruise missiles fired from multiple directions to try to confuse air defense systems. Then, less than six hours later, Moscow launched a rare daytime barrage of ballistic missiles at the city, sending residents, including schoolchildren carrying their backpacks, running for cover.

The largely successful work of Ukraine's air defense teams this month has saved scores of lives and limited the damage from the strikes.

But drones and missiles still pose a danger to civilians as debris rains down on the streets below.

"Everything that is destroyed in the sky, unfortunately, flies to the ground and brings suffering to people," Mykola Oleschuk, commander of Ukraine's air force, said in a statement on Tuesday morning.

Russia has stepped up attacks on Kyiv as Ukraine is gearing up for a counteroffensive.

Mr. Zelensky, in his overnight speech to the nation on Monday, said that each "terrorist attack" against the capital and other cities "brings us and the whole world to an obvious conclusion: Russia wants to follow the path of evil to the end."

Vowing to respond to Russian aggression on the battlefield, Mr. Zelensky said his government had approved the dates for the start of the offensive operations.

"The decisions have been made," he said.

Anna Lukinova and Nataliia Novosolova contributed reporting.