Moscow shot down dozens of drones in the early hours of Monday and briefly suspended flights at airports, authorities in the Russian capital said, just days after Ukraine hit the city's oil refinery again.

Ukrainian authorities said Russian drones had hit civilian merchant vessels, killing an Egyptian crew member, while drone attacks elsewhere killed ​at least five people, including three members of the same family in Ukraine's northern Sumy region.

Nearly 60 drones headed for ​Moscow were downed, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram. He said emergency services had been dispatched to the areas where ⁠drones were downed but gave no further information.

The airports of Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo, as well as Zhukovskiy near the Russian capital, had suspended flights, though ​they were later resumed, the aviation watchdog said separately.

In total, Russian defence systems downed 301 drones overnight, local newswires said, citing the defence ministry. ​That tally included Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.

The latest attacks come after drones again hit Moscow's sole oil refinery last week, in one of the biggest air attacks on the city since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The drone attack early on Monday in Ukraine's Sumy region killed a 13-year-old boy, his 36-year-old father and 73-year-old grandmother, while the ​boy's mother and two siblings were injured, regional prosecutors said.

In the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, a woman was killed and three other people ​injured after a drone attack, Ivan Fedorov, the local governor, said on Telegram on Monday.

-Reuters