Moscow (AFP) - A wave of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia overnight killed a woman near Moscow, Russian officials said on Tuesday, the first time someone has been killed in a Ukrainian attack near the capital since Russia’s military offensive began in 2022.

The attacks came as the Russian army claimed to have made sweeping territorial gains in Ukraine, capturing a town and three villages in three separate areas of the eastern front.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had downed 144 Ukrainian drones from a barrage that also disrupted air traffic at Moscow’s airports.

A 46-year-old woman was killed and three other people hospitalised in a drone strike on the town of Ramenskoye, about 23 kilometres (14 miles) from Moscow, local governor Andrey Vorobyov said.

In Ramenskoye, AFP reporters saw extensive damage to the 10th, 11th and 12th floors of a 17-storey apartment block in which the woman was reported to have been killed.

A resident who lived on the 13th floor with his family told AFP the strike sent plumes of smoke into his apartment.

“It became hard to breathe. It was scary, of course. We opened the windows so we could at least breathe because the smoke was coming from somewhere,” said Dmitry, a 52-year-old sales manager.

Lyubov Sbrodova, a resident of a neighbouring apartment block, told AFP hostilities were getting closer to the Russian capital.

Ukraine launched a cross-border attack into Russia’s Kursk region last month.

“It started in Kursk and has already reached us,” the 33-year-old said.

“Our authorities are not doing absolutely everything to keep our people safe,” she added.

- Moscow advances -

Around a dozen residents of the building could be seen nearby, waiting to be allowed back in after firefighters put out a fire sparked by the drone strike.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had launched a criminal probe into what it called a “terrorist act”.

The Kremlin condemned the strike, which it said showed the need for Russia to continue its offensive in Ukraine.

“We must continue the military operation in order to protect ourselves from such displays of this regime,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a daily call.

The latest wave of drones came as Moscow claimed sweeping gains in eastern Ukraine, more than 30 months into its military offensive, and as Kyiv’s forces pressed their incursion into the Kursk region.

The Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday it had captured the town of Krasnogorivka, as well as three villages in different parts of Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk.

Krasnogorivka, which had a population before the conflict of 16,000, is located in an area where the front line had remained relatively unchanged for weeks.

Kyiv launched its Kursk offensive on August 6, aiming to force Russia to redeploy troops pressing forward in the east of Ukraine.

But Moscow has appeared to intensify its attacks there.

- ‘When will it end?’ -

Russia has also kept up aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities further from the front line in recent weeks, including on key energy infrastructure.

Three Russian drones were shot down above Ukraine’s Sumy region overnight, the regional military administration said early on Tuesday.

Air defences were also activated around the capital, Kyiv.

Ukraine has targeted Moscow and the surrounding region several times with drones since the start of Russia’s Ukraine offensive in February 2022.

But Tuesday’s attack was the first time someone had died.

A resident of a building near the strike in Ramenskoye told AFP she was sleeping when the drone hit.

“We were asleep, of course. Suddenly my husband and I heard a rumble. We ran out onto the balcony. (We saw) smoke, and people running with their children,” Natalia Inshutina, 48, told AFP.

“Why are we having to live in fear now? When will it end?” she asked.

As a result of the attack, four airports servicing Moscow – including major hubs Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo – cancelled or delayed flights on Tuesday morning, according to state media.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had downed 144 Ukrainian drones in nine regions, including 20 over the Moscow region.