Ukraine drones damage two Moscow buildings, no victims: mayor

By : AFP

Date: 30 July 2023 9:37am WAT

A view of a damaged office block of the Moscow International Business Center (Moskva City) following a reported drone attack in Moscow on July 30, 2023. - Three Ukrainian drones were downed over Moscow early on July 30, 2023, Russia's defence ministry said, in an attack that briefly shut an international airport. While one of the drones was shot down on the city's outskirts, two others were "suppressed by electronic warfare" and smashed into an office complex. No one was injured. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)

A night-time Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow damaged two office blocks, the mayor of the Russian capital said early Sunday, adding that no one was injured.

“Ukrainian drones attacked tonight. Facades of two city office towers were slightly damaged. There are no victims or injured,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin posted on Telegram.

Moscow and its environs, lying about 500 kilometres (310 miles) from the Ukrainian border, had been rarely targeted during the conflict in Ukraine until several drone attacks this year.

The attack reported Sunday is the latest in a series of recent drone assaults — including on the Kremlin and Russian towns near the border with Ukraine that Moscow has blamed on Kyiv.

Earlier this month, Russia said it had downed five Ukrainian drones that disrupted the functioning of Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport.

The drone attacks on Moscow come several weeks into a Ukrainian counter-offensive to claw back territory captured by Moscow since large-scale hostilities erupted in February 2022.

Moscow’s foreign ministry has said such attacks “would not be possible without the help provided to the Kyiv regime by the US and its NATO allies”.