Ukraine launched drone attack on Moscow, Crimea: Russia

Russian media reported that one of the drones fell on the Komsomolsky highway near Moscow’s centre, shattering shop windows and damaging the roof of a house

Kyiv: Russian authorities accused Ukraine of launching a drone attack on Moscow early on Monday that saw one of the aircraft fall near the Defence Ministry’s headquarters and strike Crimea, while the Russian military unleashed new strikes on port infrastructure in southern Ukraine.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there were no casualties when the drones struck two nonresidential buildings. The Defence Ministry claimed that the military jammed both attacking drones, forcing them to crash.

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Russian media reported that one of the drones fell on the Komsomolsky highway near Moscow’s centre, shattering shop windows and damaging the roof of a house just about 200 m away from the towering riverside Defence Ministry building.

The Ministry’s main headquarters has Pantsyr air defence systems placed on the roof. It wasn’t immediately clear if the drone targeted the Defence Ministry’s headquarters, which is 2.7 km away from the Kremlin, or was heading to some other target in central Moscow.

Another drone hit an office building in southern Moscow, gutting several upper floors — more visible damage compared to earlier drone strikes on the Russian capital. Emergency workers were inspecting the damage and traffic was halted on sections of highways where the drones fell.

Ukrainian authorities didn’t immediately claim responsibility for the strike, which was the second drone attack on the Russian capital this month.

Russian authorities said that another Ukrainian drone attack early on Monday struck an ammunition depot in northern Crimea and forced a halt in traffic on a major highway and a railway crossing the Black Sea peninsula that was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014. Railway traffic was restored several hours later.

The Moscow-appointed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said authorities also ordered the evacuation of several villages within a five-km radius of the depot that was hit. Aksyonov said the military shot down or jammed 11 attacking drones, while the Defence Ministry claimed later that 11 of the 17 attacking drones were jammed and crashed into the Black Sea and another three were shot down.