- Jaroslav Lukev
- BBC News
Members of the Russian rescue teams in the residential area that was attacked.
The Russian capital and the surrounding area were subjected to an unusual attack with drones on Tuesday, which caused “minor” damage to some buildings, but did not result in any casualties, according to what Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
Sobyanin wrote on the Telegram website, saying: “An attack with drones at dawn today caused minor damage to several buildings. All emergency services in the city were deployed in the place (…) and no serious injuries were recorded so far.”
And the governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov, said that several drones were shot down near the capital.
He added: “This morning, residents of some Moscow suburbs heard explosions, and those were the sounds of our air defense system.”
He said, “We shot down several marches as they approached Moscow,” and appealed to residents to “keep calm,” stressing that “all rescue services are doing their work.”
Moscow and the surrounding area, which is more than a thousand kilometers away from Ukraine, have been targeted by very few drone attacks since the start of the conflict, but such attacks have increased in other Russian regions.
Footage posted on social media showed traces of smoke in the air. Other footage showed a shattered window in a building.
Sobyanin added that the authorities evacuated residents of two apartment buildings in Moscow that were damaged by the marches.
“Residents will be able to return to their apartments when the special services finish their work,” he said.
image copyright Kyiv City Military Administration
Local officials said that two upper floors of a high-rise building were destroyed in Kiev
The attack of the Ukrainian marches came after a Russian attack with marches on the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, during the night, which resulted in at least one death, according to what was stated by the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko.
Russian strikes, which took place in broad daylight, caused panic in the Ukrainian capital, which has been under attack since early May.
Two drones were shot down at the beginning of May over the Kremlin, the center of power in Moscow, in an attack attributed to Kiev.
Ukraine said on Tuesday that it had shot down 29 of the 31 drones, most of them over Kiev, in the latest Russian barrage, the third on the capital within 24 hours. It was reported that the Russian drone attack took place “between 11:30 pm and 4:30 am, with 31 aircraft.” Shahed drones, about 29 of them were shot down near Kiev.”
Officials say falling debris from the drones caused fires, after more than 20 drones were intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses. At least one person was reported killed.
Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down all missiles and drones in the two previous night’s attacks on Kiev.
Authorities in the western Khmelnytskyi region said on Monday that five planes had been damaged at a military site. The runway is now being repaired, authorities added, without providing any further details.
image copyright Reuters
Several cars were destroyed in a district of Kiev
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the US-made Patriot air defenses provided to Ukraine.
And he said in his video address late on Monday evening that, by using them, they had guaranteed, “100 percent of any Russian missiles will be shot down.”
Zelensky added, “Russia wants to follow the path of evil to the end, that is, to its defeat, because evil cannot have any other end than defeat. The world must see that terrorism loses.”
As for the Russian army, it said that all the intended targets were hit during its recent attacks on Kiev and other Ukrainian cities.
It has not independently verified the warring parties’ claims.
General Kirillo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, warned of a swift response by Kiev to the Russian strikes.
The military administration in Kiev said, citing preliminary information, that more than 20 “kamikaze” drones were destroyed in the latest attack.
She added that one person was killed and three others injured, after a fire broke out in a multi-storey building in the southern Holosevsky district.
“Two upper floors have been destroyed and there may be people under the rubble,” the administration said in a statement.
image copyright Reuters
One of the damaged buildings in Moscow.
Two private buildings also caught fire and several cars were damaged in the Darnitsky district, which faces the Dnipro River.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko described the latest attack as “massive” and urged residents “not to leave the shelters”.
The air raid alert status was raised after three hours, which means that the Russian air attack has ended for the time being.
It was the 17th attack on the capital since the beginning of May, including a rare daytime attack on Monday.
Russia, which launched a comprehensive invasion operation in February 2022, uses “kamikaze” drones, in addition to a group of cruise and ballistic missiles.
Analysts say Moscow seeks to deplete and destroy Ukraine’s air defenses before its long-awaited counterattack.
Ukraine had been planning a counterattack for months. But she wanted as much time as possible to train her troops and receive military equipment from the Western allies.
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2023-05-30 08:15:00
