Russia was rocked by a fresh wave of drone attacks overnight. It comes just days after Ukraine president Volodymr Zelenskiy vowed to take the war to Putin.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin claimed that several drones were shot down during the attack. However, he conceded that “one flew into the same tower at the Moskva City complex” that was targeted during a previous drone wave on Sunday.
Sobyanin said that emergency services were working at the scene. And Russian news agencies reported that Moscow’s Vnukovo airport was briefly closed because of the drone attacks.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry said two drones had been shot down by anti-aircraft systems in the Moscow region. And it said another drone had crashed in the non-residential Moskva City complex after being “suppressed by electronic warfare”.
It comes after Ukrainian armed forces reportedly had to scrap a planned naval drone strike in the Black Sea after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk refused them access to the Starlink satellite network. Satellite terminals donated by Musk have become vital to Ukraine’s military communications.
Russia’s defence ministry blamed Ukraine for the latest attack. Kyiv is yet to respond – but usually makes no comments on the issue. However, Zelensky has said attacks on Russian territory are an “inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process”.
Ukraine attacked Russia with drones on Sunday, damaging two office buildings just miles from the Kremlin and a pig-breeding complex on the countries’ border. The attacks, which Ukraine did not acknowledge in keeping with its security policy, reflected a pattern of more frequent and deeper cross-border strikes the Kyiv government has launched since starting a counter-offensive against Russian forces in June.
A precursor and the most dramatic of the strikes happened in May on the Kremlin itself, the seat of power in the capital, Moscow.
Sunday’s was the fourth such strike on the capital region this month and the third this week, showing Moscow’s vulnerability as Russia’s war in Ukraine drags into its 18th month.
The Russian defence ministry said three drones targeted the city in an “attempted terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime”.
Air defences shot down one drone in Odintsovo in the surrounding Moscow region, while two others were jammed and crashed into the Moscow City business district. Ukrainian officials did not acknowledge the attacks but President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address: “Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia — to its symbolic centres and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process.”
