Drone attack on Moscow business district
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Russian authorities say three Ukrainian drones attacked Moscow in the early hours of Sunday, injuring one person and prompting a temporary closure for traffic of one of four airports around the Russian capital.
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It was the fourth such attempt at a strike on the capital region this month and the third this week, fueling concerns about Moscow’s vulnerability to attacks as Russia’s war in Ukraine drags into its 18th month.
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Moscow office building damaged in Ukraine drone strike on Sunday
(Photo: Alexander Nemenov/ AFP)
The Russian Defense Ministry referred to the incident as an “attempted terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime” and said three drones targeted the city. One was shot down in the surrounding Moscow region by air defense systems and two others were jammed. Those two crashed into the Moscow City business district in the capital.
Photos from the site of the crash showed the facade of a skyscraper damaged on one floor. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the attack “insignificantly damaged” the outsides of two buildings in the Moscow City district. A security guard was injured, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported, citing emergency officials.
No flights went into or out of the Vnukovo airport on the southern outskirts of the city for about an hour, according to Tass, and the air space over Moscow and the outlying regions was temporarily closed for any aircraft. Those restrictions have since been lifted.
Moscow authorities have also closed a street for traffic near the site of the crash in the Moscow City area.
There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials, who rarely if ever take responsibility for attacks on Russian soil.
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Moscow office building damaged in Ukraine drone strike on Sunday
(Photo: Alexander Nemenov/ AFP)
Russia’s Defense Ministry reported shooting down a Ukrainian drone outside Moscow on Friday. Two more drones struck the Russian capital on Monday, one of them falling in the center of the city near the Defense Ministry’s headquarters along the Moscow River about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the Kremlin, where the military holds briefings on what Russia calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine. The other drone hit an office building in southern Moscow, gutting several upper floors. Russia said following that attack that it would retaliate harshly against Ukraine.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said at the time there would be more drone strikes.
In another attack on July 4, the Russian military said four drones were downed by air defenses on the outskirts of Moscow and a fifth was jammed by electronic warfare means and forced down.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that an African initiative could be a basis for peace in Ukraine but that Ukrainian attacks made it hard to realize.
He was speaking at a press conference after meeting African leaders in St Petersburg on Friday and hearing their calls for Moscow to move ahead with their plan. "There are provisions of this peace initiative that are being implemented," he said. "But there are things that are difficult or impossible to implement."
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Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit with leaders of countries from Africa in St. Petersburg
(Photo: Yegor Aleyev/TASS Host Photo Agency Pool Photo via AP)
Reuters reported in June that African mediation in the conflict could begin with confidence-building measures followed by a cessation of hostilities agreement accompanied by negotiations between Russia and the West.
Putin said that one of the points in the initiative was a cease-fire. "But the Ukrainian army is on the offensive, they are attacking, they are implementing a large-scale strategic offensive operation... We cannot cease fire when we are under attack."
On the question of starting peace talks, he said, "We did not reject them... In order for this process to begin, there needs to be agreement on both sides."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has rejected the idea of a cease-fire now that would leave Russia in control of nearly a fifth of his country and give its forces time to regroup after 17 grinding months of war.