On Sunday July 30, the Russian capital suffered a night attack by three drones that the Ministry of Defense claims to have countered. “The Kyiv regime’s attempted terrorist attack with drones on targets in the city of Moscow has been foiled,” the ministry said on Telegram, adding that one aircraft was shot down and two others “neutralized by electronic warfare”, crashed into a building complex.
“Ukrainian drones attacked last night. The facades of two office towers in the city were slightly damaged. There are no casualties or injuries,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram.
Vnukovo, an international airport in the southwest of the capital, was briefly closed to traffic and flights were rerouted, Russian news agency TASS said, citing “aviation services”, before announce the resumption of flights shortly thereafter.
Drone incursions are on the rise
Since the start of the conflict between Ukrainians and Russians in February 2022, attacks on Moscow and its surroundings, located almost 500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, have been quite rare. Until several drone incursions occur in 2023.
The drone attack reported on Sunday is the latest in a series – including one against the Kremlin and Russian towns near the border with Ukraine – that Moscow attributes to Kyiv. 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 assistance provided to the Kiev regime by the United States and its NATO allies”, according to him.
Three dead in Ukraine in Russian strikes
On Friday, the Kremlin said it had intercepted two Ukrainian missiles over the southwest of its territory, the debris of the first having injured at least sixteen in their fall on the city of Taganrog, near the border with Ukraine. The border regions have often been the target of drones and shelling since the start of the conflict, but very rarely of missiles. The Russian Defense Ministry then said the first missile, an S-200, was aimed at “residential infrastructure” in Taganrog, 250,000 people. Shortly after, the second S-200 was shot down near Azov, the debris this time falling 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.
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.