Moscow was hit by several drone strikes early Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said, hours after Kyiv suffered a new wave of attacks earlier in the day.
The Russian ministry said that all the drones had been intercepted and added: “This morning the Kyiv regime carried out a terrorist attack with drones on targets in the city of Moscow.”
No deaths were reported
Eight drones targeted the town, according to the ministry which said no one was killed.
The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, said two people sought medical help after the strikes.
Russia’s Investigate Committee said some of the drones crashed into residential buildings but did not cause much damage.
The Committee – which is in charge of investigating major crimes – said it was looking into the strike.
“This morning, at dawn, a drone attack caused minor damage to several buildings. All the city’s emergency services are on the scene… No one has been seriously injured so far ,” said Sobyanin.
Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the wider Moscow region, said that “residents of some districts of the Moscow region could hear the explosions, this is our anti-air missile defense system,” he wrote.
“Many drones were shot down while approaching Moscow,” Vorobyov said. It remains unclear who is behind the strikes.
Ukraine denies involvement
A few hours earlier the Ukrainian capital Kyiv suffered air strikes in the early hours of Tuesday that left one person dead. Debris from the drones also set fire to an apartment.
The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, appeared on television shortly after, asking “If the Russians can make Kyiv a nightmare, why are the people of Moscow resting?”
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told the “Breakfast Show” channel on YouTube “…regarding the attacks: of course we are happy to see and predict an increase in the number of attacks. But of course we have nothing to do with it directly.”
This is a second attack on Moscow was reported this month in which Russian authorities said two drones targeted the Kremlin.
Russia blamed Kyiv for the attack, saying it was an attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin.
Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied that his country was behind the attack.
Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Monday that Ukraine has set a date for its counter-offensive, but gave no details.
rm/kb (Reuters, AFP)
