Ukraine Combat Drone Damages Building in Moscow, Russia Says
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A Ukrainian military drone crashed into a Moscow city building after it was shot down by air defense systems in the latest attack on the Russian capital by unmanned aerial vehicles.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that air defense systems had shot down a drone early on Friday morning and debris had fallen on buildings in the city’s Expo Center complex.
The Expo Center – a large event space used for major exhibitions and conferences – is located less than 5km from the Kremlin.
A video published by Russian media outlets showed thick smoke rising next to skyscrapers in the city, Al Jazeera reported.
The Russian defense ministry said that Ukraine launched the drone attack at about 4am local time (01:00 GMT) “using an unmanned aerial vehicle against objects located in Moscow and the Moscow region”.
“The UAV, after being exposed to air defense weapons, changed its flight path and fell on a nonresidential building in the Krasnopresnenskaya embankment area of Moscow,” the ministry said on Telegram.
Moscow’s mayor said emergency services were on the scene, but that early reports indicated there were no casualties.
“The wreckage of the UAV fell in the area of the Expo Center, and did not cause significant damage to the building,” Sobyanin said on Telegram.
State-run news agency TASS reported that one of the walls of the Expo Center’s pavilion had partially collapsed, citing emergency services.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned last month that “war” was coming to Russia, with the country’s “symbolic centers and military bases” now targets of Kyiv.
Russia’s defense ministry also said that it thwarted a Ukrainian marine drone attack on its warships in the Black Sea on Thursday night.