Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has said there was “no major damage” following an attempted Ukrainian drone strike at around 4am on Monday morning. The unmanned vehicles crashed into non-residential buildings after the military brought them down using electronic defense systems.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a brief statement that it had prevented an “attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using two unmanned aerial vehicles” on Monday morning.
Several drone fragments were found on Komsomolsky Prospekt in the center of Moscow, not far from the Defense Ministry’s main headquarters, a source in the emergency services told TASS news agency. The department of transportation said that traffic in the area was partially restricted, advising residents to plan detour routes.
While the drone itself hit a non-residential building, several windows in residential buildings in the area were reportedly blown out by the blast wave. There were no reports of casualties or injuries, though emergency services were at the scene, with videos showing multiple police cars and ambulances.
The second drone apparently hit a high-rise building in southern Moscow which hosts the office of French home improvement chain Leroy Merlin. The department of transport confirmed partial road closures and traffic reroutes in the area.
Ukraine has recently attempted to strike targets in Moscow Region and the capital itself. Earlier this month, four incoming UAVs were shot down by air defenses over Novaya Moskva to the south west of the centre, while another crashed after being disabled by electronic warfare.
Last month, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that Kiev had launched an attack on Moscow involving eight drones which were either shot down by air defenses, or suppressed by electronic warfare. The raid damaged several residential buildings, but did not cause any serious injuries.