Drone Strike in Moscow Injures One and Causes Brief Airport Shutdown

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During the wee hours of Sunday, Russian officials reported a sudden drone attack from three Ukrainian drones in Moscow, which injured an individual and initiated a short-term halt on a city airport’s operations.

This marks the fourth strike on the capital region within the month and the third one this week, escalating anxieties over Moscow’s susceptibility to such attacks amidst the prolonged Russian-Ukrainian conflict, now in its 18th month.

Characterizing the event as an “attempted act of terrorism by the Kyiv regime,” the Russian Defense Ministry reported that three drones targeted the city. One was intercepted and brought down by air defense systems in the Moscow vicinity, while the remaining two were jammed and subsequently crashed into the Moscow City business district.

Photographs from the crash site revealed a skyscraper with damage to one of its floors. Moscow’s Mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, stated that the attack caused “minimal damage” to the exterior of two structures within the Moscow City district. Tass, Russia’s national news agency, cited emergency officials reporting that a security guard was injured in the incident.

Vnukovo airport, situated on the city’s southern periphery, saw a cessation of flights for approximately an hour, as reported by Tass. Moreover, for a brief period, all aircraft were barred from the skies over Moscow and its nearby regions. However, these restrictions have since been lifted.

In the vicinity of the crash within the Moscow City area, authorities also imposed a traffic ban.

While not directly confirming Ukraine’s involvement in the Moscow attack, a Ukrainian airforce representative implied that Russian citizens were experiencing the fallout of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“People who believe the war ‘doesn’t affect them,’ it’s already reached them,” spokesperson Yurii Ihnat informed journalists on Sunday.

Ihnat also mentioned another drone attack on Russian-held Crimea during the same night. It was announced on Sunday by Moscow that they had intercepted 16 Ukrainian drones and disabled an additional eight using electronic jamming techniques. There were no casualties reported.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s airforce announced the destruction of four Russian drones over Ukraine’s Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions. The veracity of these reports could not be independently confirmed.

At the same time, a Russian missile strike on the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine claimed two lives and injured 20 on Saturday evening. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry stated that a four-story building affiliated with a vocational college was hit. Local authorities reported extensive damage to dormitories and educational buildings resulting from the subsequent explosion and fire.

Earlier on Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported a Ukrainian drone was shot down near Moscow. Four days prior, two drones hit the Russian capital, one falling near the Defense Ministry’s headquarters, approximately 3 kilometers (2 miles) away from the Kremlin, and the other striking an office building in southern Moscow, causing substantial damage to several upper floors.

In a previous attack on July 4, the Russian military reported that four drones were intercepted on the outskirts of Moscow, and a fifth was electronically jammed and forced to land.

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• AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine
• Russian Defense Ministry’s Official Statement
• Tass News Agency Report
• Ukrainian Airforce Official Statement
• Recent Moscow Drone Attacks
• Russia-Ukraine Conflict Timeline