KYIV, Aug 21 - Moscow came under one of the largest attacks by Ukrainian drones since the start of fighting in 2022, Russian authorities reported Wednesday, saying they destroyed all of those headed toward the country’s capital.

The attacks came as Ukrainian forces continue to push into Russia’s western Kursk region. In the past week, they have also struck three bridges, several airfields and an oil depot in a sign they are not letting up on their attacks, The Associated Press reported.

Late Wednesday, the governor of Russia’s Bryansk, which borders both Kursk and Ukraine, said Russian forces turned back a Ukrainian attempt to enter that region.

Governor Alexander Bogomaz identified the Ukrainian forces as a “sabotage and reconnaissance group” but did not specify if they were part of Ukraine’s military. He said on the Telegram channel that the attempted incursion was in the area of Klimovo, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of the section of Kursk held by Ukrainian forces.

“This was one of the biggest attempts of all time to attack Moscow using drones,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram. Strong defenses around the Russian capital made it possible to shoot down all the drones before they could hit their intended targets, he said.

Russia said it downed 45 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 11 over the Moscow region. There was no independent information to verify those figures. Some Russian social media channels shared videos of drones apparently being destroyed by air defense systems, which then set off car alarms.

Ukrainian drone strikes have brought the fight far from the front line into the heart of Russia, targeting Moscow and Russia’s second city St. Petersburg, as well as an airport in western Russia, according to Russian officials.

Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has stepped up aerial assaults on Russian soil, targeting refineries and oil terminals to slow down the Kremlin’s assault.

A fire at an oil depot targeted by Ukraine burned for the fourth day Wednesday in Rostov, a region in southwestern Russia that borders Ukraine. Priests from the Russian Orthodox Church held prayers for injured firefighters as dark plumes of smoke rose from the depot in Proletarsk, according to a photo shared on social media by the Volgodonsk diocese.

Ukraine’s daring land incursion into Russia has raised morale in Ukraine with its surprising success and changed the dynamic of the fighting. But it is also risky — Ukrainian forces were already badly stretched, with fighting underway along a stretch of over 970 kilometers (600 miles). The gains in Kursk come as Ukraine continues to lose ground in its eastern industrial region of Donbas. (ap/ez)