Staff Reporter.
The Russian capital and its surrounding areas were targeted by rare drone attacks on Tuesday morning, causing “minor” damage to buildings and no casualties, officials said.
Russian forces had fired a barrage of missiles at Kyiv on Monday, sending panicked residents running for shelter in an unusual daytime attack on the Ukrainian capital following overnight strikes.
“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,” Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region, said many drones had been downed near the capital.
“This morning, the residents of certain districts in the Moscow region could hear explosions, it was our anti-air missile defence system,” he wrote.
“Several drones were shot down while approaching Moscow,” he wrote, urging residents to keep calm and adding that “all rescue services are doing their work”.
Moscow, located more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from Ukraine, has only rarely been targeted by drone attacks since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, even though such attacks have become more common elsewhere in Russia.
Images posted on social media showed traces of smoke in the sky. Others showed a broken window.
Sobyanin said the residents of two buildings damaged in Tuesday’s strikes had been evacuated and added that they “can return to their apartments once the special services have finished their work”.
Since Russia invaded its neighbour in February last year, the war has largely been fought inside Ukraine, though Moscow has reported some attacks on its territory and blamed them on Ukraine, including an alleged assassination attempt against President Vladimir Putin.
@Agence France-Presse.