Drone strikes shut 4 Moscow airports; Russia holding 'farce' elections in Ukraine: Live updates

All four major Moscow-area airports were briefly shut down and forced to cancel or delay flights Tuesday after drones were shot down nearby, authorities said.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there were no casualties where the wreckage fell, but debris from a downed drone in the Istra district damaged a home. The Russian Defense Ministry blamed Ukraine for the "terrorist attack." Kyiv had no immediate comment.

Russian news agencies said almost 50 flights were canceled or postponed at Moscow area's Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky airports. Flights resumed a short time later.

The Russian Defense Ministry said 21 HIMARS and Uragan rockets fired by Ukrainian troops were intercepted and 33 Ukrainian drones shot down by Russian electronic warfare.

Wagner after Prigozhin: What the mercenary boss' death means for Russia's war in Ukraine

Developments:

◾Ukraine is using Australian drones to strike targets inside Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. She said the Australian government was hiding the country's increasing involvement in the war from its citizens.

◾Sergei Surovikin, a top Russian general who fell from grace after being linked to Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin's mutiny in June, made a public appearance over the weekend. Russia's state-run Pravda said Surovikin was expected to receive several job offers "in the near future, but all of them would be "related to working within the structures of the Russian Defense Ministry outside Russia."

◾An explosion rocked a Russian military enlistment office in St. Petersburg, the local news website Fontanka said Tuesday. No injuries were reported.

Leadership change: Ukrainian defense minister will be replaced this week

Putin's daughter's research published in US this year

Research by a group of scientists that include the daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been published in the U.S. as recently as April of this year. Maria Vorontsova, also known as Maria Faassen and Mariya Putina, is a pediatric endocrinologist. Vorontsova, 38, has been sanctioned by the West, freezing her assets and limiting her travel but making no mention of publication.

In April. Vorontsova co-wrote with more than a dozen colleagues from Moscow State University a study of Russian cystic fibrosis patients. The research can be found in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, along with another article published in March. The National Institute of Health's National Library of Medicine picked up some of the articles. The Ukraine media outlet RBK sites other published research as well.

The Russian website Meduza reported a few months after the war began that Vorontsova’s social media chats on political and social issues did not specifically reflect support for the war but had echoed her father's anti-U.S. rhetoric.

Russia tightens grip on Ukraine with 'farce' elections

Moscow is holding "farce" elections in occupied territories of Ukraine this week as the Kremlin tightens its grip on land it seized in the early months of the war.

The British Defense Ministry said in its latest assessment of the war that voting had already started in Zaporizhzhia and Mariupol and that most of the elections are planned for Friday through Sunday − election day in the Russian Federation. The ministry cited a "lack of qualified, experienced, and willing" candidates in Ukraine.

“There is also an absence of independent candidates that are not members of the Kremlin endorsed parties, indicating that these will not be free or fair elections," the assessment said. The ministry, citing Kremlin polls, said the United Russia party could capture 80% of the vote, claiming the majority of seats as Moscow tightens its grip in the four occupied regions.

Ukraine's National Resistance Center called the elections in what it calls the temporarily occupied territories, or TOT, a "farce" and urged residents not to participate in the "propaganda show."

Reznikov out as Ukraine defense minister

Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday accepted the resignation of defense minister Oleksii Reznikov, whose removal marks the biggest shakeup in Kyiv's war effort since Russia's invasion began more than 17 months ago. Reznikov formally resigned Monday, a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Reznikov would be dismissed from the post. Zelenskyy said he sought "new approaches" to the war and to the interaction between the military and society.

Reznikov's removal comes as Ukraine's counteroffensive, aimed at regaining territory lost in the first months of the war, has been slowed by a stout Russian defense. The defense ministry also has been wracked by multiple investigations into abuses and bribery in arms purchases, although none have been linked to Reznikov.

Rustem Umerov, a businessman from Russian-occupied Crimea, is expected to be appointed to the post Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ukraine war live updates: Russia to hold 'farce' elections in Ukraine