The attack on Moscow came just a day after Russia carried out similar strikes on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, which saw scores of drones shot down by Ukrainian air defences.
In response, overnight yesterday, the Russian capital came under a like-for-like bombardment of kamikaze drones. Three of Moscow’s international airports – Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky – had to be closed, with flights suspended or cancelled.
The city’s Putin-loyal mayor complained of a “mass attack” on the Russian capital. And Russian forces were forced to shoot down 11 drones overnight and another nine early yesterday morning.
In Tula, one on the unmanned crafts hit a residential building as it crashed to the ground.
A video showed the moment of the explosion.Three people, a man and two women, required medical help.
Local residents were evacuated from the building. Later in the morning, another swarm of drones was reported in Tula, a region where close Putin crony and former bodyguard Alexei Dyumin is governor, who once famously saved the dictator from being savaged by a brown bear.
Loud explosions were reported over the city. “It flew right over us,” said one local said. A major fire was also reported in central Moscow after the attacks blocking all traffic, according to state media reports.
“The circumstances of the incident and information about the victims are being clarified,” authorities said.Also in Moscow region, surrounding the capital, five drones were reportedly shot down in Naro-Fominsk, Odintsovo, Ramensky and Podolsk urban districts.
In three cases there was damage to buildings on the ground. It was not immediately clear if any of the drones had hit strategic targets.
More drones were downed in Kaluga, Bryansk and Smolensk regions as Ukraine responded to the onslaught on Kyiv a day earlier.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the main target was Moscow. “A mass drone attack was attempted overnight,” he said.
