A view shows a damaged building following a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, July 24, 2023. - Courtesy |
MOSCOW, Russia
Russia has accused Ukraine of
being behind a drone attack that damaged at least two buildings in the capital
Moscow early on Monday morning.
The Russian defence ministry
said two drones were "suppressed and crashed", adding that there were
no casualties.
Russia's state-owned Tass news
agency reported that one drone fell close to the defence ministry.
Ukrainian officials are yet to
comment, but they rarely claim responsibility for attacks inside Russia.
In a separate development,
Russian-installed officials ordered people to evacuate one district of Crimea -
the Ukrainian southern peninsular annexed by Moscow in 2014 - after a reported
overnight Ukrainian drone attack.
Kremlin-appointed regional
head Sergei Aksenov said an ammunition depot was hit in the northern Dzhankoi
area, and residents of nearby villages were told to leave their homes. He
reported no casualties.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said four
people were injured and a grain hangar was destroyed in new Russian drone
attacks on its southern Odesa region. It said the country's port infrastructure
on the Danube was targeted.
Russia has been launching
near-constant attacks on the Odesa region - where Ukraine's major Black Sea
ports are located - since Russia withdrew from a landmark grain deal last week.
In Moscow, the city's Mayor
Sergei Sobyanin said the drone strikes in the Russian capital hit
"non-residential" buildings around 04:00 local time (01:00 GMT). In a
post on social media, he added that the buildings had not sustained any major
damage.
But state news agencies
reported that some drone fragments were found just 2km (1.2 miles) away from
the defence ministry's buildings.
"A Kyiv regime attempt to
carry out a terrorist act using two drones on objects on the territory of the
city of Moscow was stopped," the Russian defence ministry said in a
statement.
Russian news agencies reported
that drone debris was also found along the city's Komsomolsky Avenue. Moscow's
transport department wrote on Telegram that traffic along the route was blocked
and photos showed emergency services working at the scene.
Traffic was also stopped on
Likhachev Avenue, where a high-rise office building was damaged. Footage
published on the military Zvezda TV channel showed missing windows at the top
of the building.
Moscow has accused Ukraine of
a host of drone attacks on its territory in recent months.
Earlier this month, Russia said Ukraine
launched a drone attack on Moscow, forcing flights to be diverted from
Vnukovo International Airport. Ukraine did not claim responsibility.
And in May Kyiv denied
carrying out a drone attack on the Kremlin, which Russia said amounted to an
attempt on President Vladimir Putin's life.
Monday's attack comes just a
day after Russia targeted Odesa with missile strikes, destroying the historical
Transfiguration Cathedral.
Unesco, the UN's cultural
agency, said it was "deeply dismayed and condemns in the strongest
terms" the attack on the historic centre of Odesa.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr
Zelensky vowed retaliation for the attack.
"They will definitely
feel this," he said during his nightly address from Kyiv. "The target
of all these missiles is not just cities, villages or people. Their target is
humanity and the foundations of our entire European culture."
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