Moscow drone attack: Russia blames Ukraine for ‘terrorist’ strike

Moscow and its surrounding areas were targeted by drone attacks that the Russian defence ministry blamed on Ukraine.

“This morning, the Kyiv regime launched a terrorist drone attack on targets in the city of Moscow,” the defence ministry said. “Three of them were suppressed by electronic warfare, lost control and deviated from their intended targets. Another five drones were shot down by the Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile system in the Moscow region.”

The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, said the the attack on Tuesday morning caused minor damage to several buildings. “All the city’s emergency services are on the scene … No one has been seriously injured so far,” Sobyanin said.

Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region, said several drones were shot down on their approach to the city.

Moscow, located more than 620 miles from Ukraine, has only rarely been targeted by drone attacks since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, even though such attacks have become more common elsewhere in Russia. In early May, two drones were shot down over the Kremlin in an attack blamed on Ukraine.

Images posted on social media showed traces of smoke in the sky. Others showed a broken window. Sobyanin said the residents of two buildings damaged in Tuesday’s strikes had been evacuated and added that they “can return to their apartments once the special services have finished their work”.

The rare attack on the Russian capital came as Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, faced its third air raid in 24 hours.

At least one person died in Kyiv and three were injured when falling debris reportedly from a destroyed Russian drone hit a high-rise apartment building early on Tuesday and started a fire, officials said.