A nighttime attack by Ukrainian drones against Moscow was foiled, without causing any casualties, and the capital’s international airport briefly closed, Russian authorities announced on Sunday.
“Ukrainian drones attacked last night. The facades of two office towers in the city were slightly damaged. There were no casualties or injuries,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin told Telegram.
Several windows of these buildings were blown out, steel beams made visible and documents scattered on the ground, according to an AFP photographer.
The Russian Ministry of Defense denounced an “attempted terrorist attack”.
The attack, of three drones in total, was foiled, the Russian Defense Ministry said, adding that one was shot down and the other two, “neutralized by electronic warfare”, crashed into a complex of buildings.
Vnukovo International Airport in southwest Moscow was briefly closed to traffic and flights were rerouted, Russian news agency TASS said, citing “aviation services”, before announcing their resumption a little after.
Attacks on and around Moscow, located nearly 500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, were fairly rare from the start of the conflict in February 2022, until several drone incursions occurred in 2023.
The one reported on Sunday is the latest in a series of drone attacks, including one against the Kremlin and Russian towns near the border with Ukraine, which Moscow attributes to Kiev.
Earlier in July, Russia claimed to have shot down five Ukrainian drones that had previously disrupted the operation of Vnukovo airport.
These attacks come a few weeks after the launch of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, intended to retake the territories occupied by Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov blamed the attacks, which “would not be possible without the aid provided to the Kiev regime by the United States and its NATO allies,” he said.
On Friday, the Kremlin said it intercepted two Ukrainian missiles over the southwest of its territory, the debris of the first having injured at least 16 as they fell on the city of Taganrog, near the border with Ukraine.
The border regions have often been the target of drones and shelling since the beginning of the conflict, but very rarely of missiles.
The Russian Ministry of Defense then declared that the first missile, an S-200, targeted “residential infrastructure” in Taganrog, 250,000 inhabitants.
Shortly after, the second S-200 was shot down near Azov, the debris falling this time on an uninhabited area, according to the ministry.
On the Ukrainian side, near the border, the city of Sumy was hit on Saturday evening by a Russian missile. At least one civilian died and five were injured, according to police, who said the attack hit an educational facility.
According to state media Suspilne, one of the buildings of the complex was destroyed by the explosion which occurred at 8:00 p.m. local time (17:00 GMT). On images released by Suspilne, the rubble of this building appears.
In early July, a Russian drone attack hit an apartment building in Sumy, killing three and injuring 21.
Earlier Saturday, a man and a woman were also killed in a Russian strike, this time in Zaporizhia, the major city in southern Ukraine, local authorities reported.
07/30/2023 08:30:43 – Moscow (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
