The Russian capital Moscow was again the target of a drone attack in the early hours of this Monday (24). According to the city’s mayor, Serguei Sobyanin, “drone attacks on two nonresidential buildings” were registered around four in the morning.
The roof of a twostorey administration building was destroyed by the drone crash. Windows in surrounding residential buildings and shops were also smashed. Sobyanin promised to help residents repair damage to their apartments “as soon as possible.”
The second drone hit a mall under construction. In the building, glass splinters broke out over an area of 50 square meters on the 17th and 18th floors. Traffic was temporarily blocked on both roads while emergency services cleaned up the aftermath of the drone crash. In none of the cases were there casualties.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it managed to electronically intercept the drones and blamed Ukraine for the attack. “On the morning of July 24, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using two unmanned aerial vehicles against objects in the city of Moscow was foiled. Using electronic warfare, two Ukrainian drones were knocked down and crashed,” the ministry said.
Ukrainian authorities have not officially commented on the drone attack on Moscow, but Ukrainian media sources quoted by RBKUkraine say the attack was prepared by the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry.
Russian attack on Odessa
The day before, last Sunday (23), Russian troops carried out another attack on the Ukrainian city of Odessa. The Task Force “South” of the Ukrainian army reported that the target of the night attack by Russian drones in the Odessa region was the port infrastructure on the Danube.
“As a result of the attacks, a hangar with grain was destroyed, tanks for storing other types of cargo were damaged, a fire broke out in one of the production facilities, which was quickly extinguished,” the statement said.
The bombing destroyed the largest orthodox church in the city of Odessa, the Transfiguration Cathedral.
The Russian Defense Ministry denies that the temple was the target of the Russian attack and claims the cathedral was destroyed by “illiterate actions by Ukrainian air defense forces”. The Kremlin claims Ukrainian “antimissiles” damaged the cathedral.
The cathedral, built in 1809, belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) and is classified as a Unesco historical heritage. On January 25, 2023, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee put the historic center of Odessa on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Photo taken on July 23, 2023 shows the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odessa destroyed by a missile attack. / Oleksandr Gimanov / AFP
The process of adding the city’s historic center to the UNESCO World Heritage List took about ten years, according to Ukrainian authorities. The procedure was accelerated due to increasing hostilities in the war in Ukraine.
According to local authorities, the Russian attack on Odessa this morning was the largest attack on the city’s historic center since the beginning of the war. According to the regional administration, at least 44 buildings were damaged in the city, including 25 monuments.
UNESCO has “vehemently condemned” the current bombing and promised to send a preliminary damage assessment mission to the city.
Editing: Leandro Melito