MOSCOW—Russia's Defense Ministry claimed early Sunday that it shot down three Ukrainian drones that attempted to hit Moscow, the second such attack in a week, which damaged a high-rise structure believed to hold government offices.
According to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, no one was injured, and only minimal damage was done to the facades of two office buildings in the Moskva-Citi business area.
The neighborhood is notable for its contemporary high-rise structures, which are located many miles from the Kremlin. According to Russian media, one of the destroyed buildings housed three Russian government ministries as well as private flats.
The fact that hostile drones have reached the heart of Russia's capital in recent months, even if they have caused no substantial damage thus far, is unsettling for the authorities, who have assured the public that Russia is in complete control of its "special military operation" against Ukraine.
In the most high-profile occurrence of its sort, two drones arrived at the Kremlin in May. Russia announced last Monday that it had foiled an attack on Moscow using two drones, one of which was shot down near the military ministry's headquarters.
Kyiv does not normally claim credit for particular occurrences on Russian territory, and did not claim responsibility for the current attack, however President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the conflict was "gradually returning to Russia's territory—to its symbolic centers."
“And this is an inevitable, natural, and absolutely fair process,” Mr. Zelenskyy said in his daily address to the nation.
at Moscow, a young lady identified as Liya told Reuters that she was at an apartment she had rented with some friends at the time of the strike on Sunday.
“At some point, we heard an explosion, and it was like a wave, everyone jumped,” she said. “And then there was a lot of smoke, and you couldn’t see anything. From above, you could see fire.”
Glass panels were blasted out in one high-rise structure, while glass, debris, and business documents littered the sidewalk below, according to Reuters. Police and emergency personnel have cordoned off the area.
Flights to and from Moscow's Vnukovo airport were momentarily halted as a result of the incident, according to the TASS news agency.
According to the Defense Ministry, two drones were brought down using radio-electronic equipment and crashed in the Moskva-Citi region. According to the report, air defenses shot down another plane in the air above the Odintsovo district of the Moscow region.
“On the morning of 30th July, an attempted terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime using unmanned aerial vehicles against targets in the city of Moscow was foiled,” the ministry said in its statement.
Separately, it claimed to have successfully stopped a nocturnal attack on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia invaded from Ukraine in 2014. It claimed to have shot down or caused to crash 25 Ukrainian drones. The Crimea incident had resulted in no injuries or property damage, according to the report.
