Russian air defences shot down most of 630 drones that were flying towards Moscow overnight, the city's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said on Thursday. Two people were injured in the attack in an area outside the capital.

Sobyanin said on the Telegram messaging app that Russian air defences had repelled the attack, according to Reuters. He gave no further details on the extent of any damage or on which sites the drones had been aiming for, nor did he specify exactly how many of the aircraft were brought down.

The attack comes amid an escalation in cross-border air strikes between Russia and Ukraine, with operations increasingly reaching areas far from the front lines.

On Wednesday, Russian authorities said a 19-year-old man was killed and two other people were injured when a drone struck a car in the Bryansk region in western Russia.

The regional governor, Yegor Kovalchuk, said the strike had been carried out by a Ukrainian drone, Reuters reported. The agency said it could not independently verify the Russian account.