Russia thwarts two attempted drone strikes by Ukraine on Moscow
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Emergency services state that several fragments from the drones were found on Komsomolsky Prospekt in downtown Moscow, not far away from the Defense Ministry’s main headquarters.
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A police officer secures an area outside a damaged non-residential building on Komsomolsky Prospekt after a reported drone attack in Moscow on July 24, 2023. (AFP)
Following an attempted Ukrainian drone strike at around 4 am on Monday, Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin confirmed “no major damage” after the drones crashed into non-residential buildings when the Russian military intercepted them using electronic warfare.
In its statement, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that it prevented an “attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using two unmanned aerial vehicles” on Monday.
An emergency services source told TASS news agency that several fragments from the drones were found on Komsomolsky Prospekt in downtown Moscow, not far away from the Defense Ministry’s main headquarters.
Read next: Moscow says Ukrainian UAV attacks impossible without US, NATO aid
Even though one of the drones crashed into a non-residential building, several windows in the surrounding residential buildings were blown out by the crash but there were no casualties or injuries.
The second drone allegedly hit a high-rise building in Moscow where the office of the French home improvement giant Leroy Merlin sits.
Earlier this month, Sobyanin confirmed that Ukraine made an attempt to attack Moscow and the Moscow Region with drones, announcing that the attacks were repelled by Russian air defense forces. He noted that no human casualties were recorded after the drone attack.
In response, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova slammed Kiev's attempt to attack the area where civilian infrastructure facilities are located, including an airport, as another act of terrorism.
"Considering that [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky commits these terrorist attacks with purchased weapons supplied by the West or with Western funds, then this is international terrorism," she indicated on Telegram.
Back in May, Russia's Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of targeting Moscow with eight drones, adding that all the drones involved in the incident were downed. "... the Kiev regime launched a terrorist drone attack on targets in the city of Moscow," the Defense Ministry said.
It added that three of them were suppressed by electronic warfare, lost control, and deviated from their intended targets and that another five drones were shot down by the Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile system in the Moscow region.
Read more: Russia downs 6 Ukrainian UAVs, jams 3 over Crimea
