Russia says it foiled a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow
Russian defence ministry says its forces intercepted and destroyed two Ukrainian drones over Moscow.
Russia’s air defence forces have “suppressed” a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow, the Russian defence ministry has announced, accusing Kyiv of launching a “terrorist act” against the country’s capital.
The attack early on Monday came a day after Ukraine vowed to “retaliate” for a Russian missile attack on the Black Sea port of Odesa.
“A Kyiv regime attempt to carry out a terrorist act using two drones on objects on the territory of the city of Moscow was stopped,” the Russian defence ministry said.
“Two Ukrainian drones were suppressed and crashed. There are no casualties.”
There was no comment from Ukraine.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the drone strikes occurred at around 4:00am local time (01:00 GMT).
The Russian TASS news agency said that one of the drones fell on Komsomolsky Prospekt, which is close to Russia’s defence ministry, while another hit a business centre on Likhacheva Street near one of Moscow’s main ring roads.
The Reuters news agency reported two loud explosions before the reported attacks.
The RIA Novosti news agency posted a video of the business centre, with some damage visible to the top of the tall building.
The road around it was closed.
Moscow lies around 500km (310 miles) from the Ukrainian border but have been hit by several drone attacks this year, with one even hitting the Kremlin in May.
Earlier this month, Russia said it had downed five Ukrainian drones that disrupted the functioning of Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport.
Meanwhile in Ukraine, Russian forces have pounded the the port city of Odesa since Moscow quit a deal allowing Ukrainian grain to be exported through the Black Sea last week.
The latest strike on the city on Sunday killed two people and severely damaged a historic cathedral.
Clergymen rescued icons from rubble inside the badly damaged Transfiguration Cathedral, which was demolished under Stalin in 1936 and rebuilt in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Ukrainian government condemned the cathedral strike as a “war crime”, saying it had been “destroyed twice: by Stalin and Putin”.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pledged retaliation: “They will definitely feel this,” he said.
“We cannot allow people around the world to get used to terrorist attacks,” Zelenskyy added in his evening speech late on Sunday.
“The target of all these missiles is not just cities, villages or people. Their target is humanity and the foundations of our entire European culture.”