Early on Wednesday, a drone hit a building under construction in central Moscow said the city mayor Sergei Sobyanin. AFP reported this as the sixth straight night of aerial attacks on Russia’s capital region.
The mayor further informed through his telegram channel that earlier, the Russian military downed two more drones by “air defense system” in the Mozhaisk and Khimki districts of the Moscow region.
About the Attack on Moscow:
Buidling destroyed by drone attack in Moscow. Image source: The Guardian
RIA reported, “At 3,00 Moscow time, a loud explosion was heard, and a little later, smoke rose from the building in the same area.” They also released a video showing a huge column of white smoke coming from the location of the explosion.
The Russian Defence Ministry informed about the attack and said that the drone has been “suppressed by electronic warfare” before it lost control and collided with the building. The mayor added that emergency personnel were checking the scene after many windows in two adjacent, five-story buildings were broken.No casualties were reported. However, it is also not clear who carried out the attack.
After hearing the loud explosion in the capital’s central district on Wednesday morning, all the flights to and from Moscow’s airport were suspended. However, it is to be noted that the suspension was later removed and flights resumed to operate normally. In recent days, major airports around the Russian capital have reportedly closed down due to Ukrainian drone attacks.
Russia-Ukraine drone attacks:
A woman inspects the damage after a drone hit a building in the Moscow. Image source: Voa News
In recent months, the allegations of drone attacks inside Russia have become quite the norm. The Russian defense ministry informed further that at night, air forces thwarted yet another attempt by the Kyviv regime to carry out a terrorist attack by three aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles on the city of Moscow. They reported no casualties.
The latest in a string of assaults on the Russian capital was the drone strike on Wednesday. A building in the center area was struck by a Ukrainian drone early on Saturday. Furthermore, Russia’s defense ministry reported on Tuesday that they have downed two drones over the Moscow region, and two more were intercepted over the Bryansk region near the Ukrainian border. To add to the list, Russian air defenses had shot down two drones to the west of the capital in the Krasnogorsk and Chastsy districts. The ministry added that a Ukrainian surveillance boat that had been sailing close to Russian gas production sites on Tuesday in the Black Sea was sunk by a Russian warplane.
Ukraine doesn’t claim any responsibility for the drone attack in Russia on Tuesday even when Russian officials described it as “another attempt by the Kyviv regime to carry out a terrorist attack.” However, President Volodymyr Zelensky made a statement stating that attacks on Russian territory are an “inevitable, natural, and fair process” as reported by BBC
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, British military intelligence stated that the latest in a succession of successful attacks on Russian military equipment, a drone appeared to have destroyed a supersonic Russian bomber on an airbase hundreds of kilometers away from Ukraine.
Images shared on social media showed a Tu-22M3-like aircraft engulfed in flames on a runway. The aircraft have frequently been employed in offensives against Ukraine that have resulted in the deaths of people, including dumping unguided missiles on Mariupol at the outset of Russia’s invasion.
US Response:
US State Department, in response to reports of the downed drones, said that Washington didn’t encourage drone attacks in Russia. In response to the Russian-Ukraine war, US officials said that it is up to Ukraine to decide how it chose to defend itself. The war could be thwarted at any time if Russia decides to withdraw from its neighbor.
