Drone destroyed en route to Moscow – mayor

An enemy drone has been destroyed as it was flying towards Moscow, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in the early hours of Saturday. He added that there was no damage on the ground and that no one was hurt. The Russian capital has been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian attack drones in recent weeks.

The UAV was shot down over the Istra district west of the city, the mayor said, adding that the emergency services were responding to the incident.

The Russian Defense Ministry later released a statement, saying that a Ukrainian drone was on a mission to “conduct a terrorist attack” in the capital and the greater Moscow area.

Ukraine has stepped up drone and missile attacks deep into Russian territory as its much-anticipated ground offensive, which was launched in early June, has failed to yield significant results.

Many of the drone raids have targeted Moscow, including the Moscow City business district, where several UAVs had crashed into office buildings without causing any casualties. 

According to the MOD, a Ukrainian S-200 missile was intercepted in Kaluga Region southwest of Moscow on Friday. Kiev has remodeled some of its Soviet-era S-200 missiles, originally designed to strike airborne targets, into projectiles capable of striking targets on the ground, the Russian military said.

Also on Friday, Ukraine sent more than 40 drones to attack Crimea, all of which were either destroyed mid-air or veered off course due to signal-jamming, the Russian MOD said.