Ukraine has once again targeted the Russian capital’s business district, with at least one drone intercepted and downed near the high-rises of Moscow City, local authorities and the Defense Ministry confirmed on Friday morning.
“Tonight, air defense forces destroyed a drone during an attempted attack on Moscow. The wreckage of the UAV fell in the area of the Expocenter, with no significant damage caused to the building,” Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said on Telegram at 4:20am, referring to a major convention venue in the area where the city’s tallest skyscrapers are located.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed in a brief statement that the drone was intercepted at around 4am, causing it to veer off course and crash into a “non-residential complex” in the business district.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or injuries, but “emergency services are working at the scene,” according to the authorities.
All flights to and from Vnukovo Airport in southwestern Moscow were briefly suspended as a precaution.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has ramped up its attempts to target Moscow with drone strikes, which have been mostly unsuccessful.
In late July, commenting on the recurring Ukrainian drone raids on Moscow, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said they look like “acts of desperation,” which, he claimed, were motivated by Kiev’s failure to breach Russian lines during its much-hyped counteroffensive. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukraine has lost more than 43,000 service members and almost 5,000 pieces of military equipment since the start of the counteroffensive in early June.