(Moscow) Russia announced on Tuesday that it shot down five Ukrainian drones over the Moscow region in a rare attack near the Russian capital that disrupted the operation of an international airport.
This attack targeted sites in the Moscow region and on the outskirts of the capital, areas that have only been targeted a few times since the start of the offensive in Ukraine even though such strikes have increased elsewhere in Russia.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, four drones were destroyed by anti-aircraft defense near the capital and the fifth was neutralized by “electronic warfare means”, before crashing in the Moscow region.
The attack caused no casualties or damage, the ministry said.
“All attacks were repelled by anti-aircraft defense, all detected drones were neutralized,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram.
However, the attack disrupted the operation of Vnukovo Airport, one of Moscow’s three major international airports, for three hours.
According to the emergency services quoted by the Ria Novosti news agency, one of the drones was neutralized near Koubinka, a town located about forty kilometers from the airport where several flights had to be redirected in the morning.
Vnukovo airport was able to “resume its work” at 1 a.m. (Eastern time), according to the Russian agency in charge of air transport, Rosaviatsia.
According to the state news agency TASS, Russian anti-aircraft defense also shot down a drone in the Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow.
After the attack, the spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy Maria Zakharova denounced on Telegram a “terrorist act” which targeted an area where “civilian infrastructure” is located.
She blamed Westerners, who provide crucial military and financial support to Ukraine.
“Resist the pressures”
In Ukraine, two people were killed in the Kherson region in the south of the country by Russian artillery shelling, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin announced on Telegram.
Three people were also injured in the Donetsk region (East) and three others in the Cherniguiv region (North), according to local authorities.
The death toll from the Russian drone strike that hit an apartment building in Sumy, in the northeast, on Monday also increased to three dead and 21 injured.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, a total of 16 Iranian-made drones launched by Russia were shot down overnight.
Fighting also continues on the front, almost a month after the counter-offensive launched by Ukrainian forces which has so far yielded only moderate territorial gains for Kyiv.
According to the British Ministry of Defence, the Ukrainian forces are facing in their advance a “massive use of anti-tank mines by Russia” and attacks by Russian aircraft, helicopters and artillery.
Russian forces have “achieved some success with this approach”, but continue to “suffer from major weaknesses”, he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday reported “difficult” fighting throughout the past week as Kyiv forces advanced 37 square kilometers in the south and east.
Russia has affirmed for its part that the Ukrainian army has not “achieved its objectives on any axis” since the start of its counter-offensive in early June.
On the diplomatic level, Russian President Vladimir Putin took part on Tuesday in a virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional alliance which notably brings together Russia, China and India.
Mr. Putin assured that his country would “continue to resist” in the face of “external pressures” and “sanctions”. He thanked the SCO countries that had expressed their “support” to him during the mutiny of the paramilitary group Wagner which shook the Kremlin at the end of June.