Russian air defenses shot down three Ukrainian drones in and around Moscow which were the target of attacks for the sixth straight day, Russia said early Wednesday.
• Also read: Three dead in Russian shelling in eastern Ukraine
• Also read: Russia says it sent jets to intercept drones over the Black Sea
• Also read: Moscow claims to have ‘destroyed’ a Ukrainian scout ship in the Black Sea
According to the head of the local military administration, the latest attack came hours after Russian shelling of two villages near Lyman in eastern Ukraine killed three and wounded two others.
A drone “was neutralized by electronic warfare and, after losing control, collided with a building under construction in the Moscow city complex” without causing casualties, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram, accusing Kiev of being behind the attack .
According to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, several windows of two five-story buildings were damaged and rescue workers are inspecting the area, he said on his Telegram account.
Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency previously reported that an “explosion” occurred in the Moscow city business district, some 5 km from the Kremlin, west of the Russian capital.
“A building under construction in the city of Moscow suffered minor damage,” TASS reported, citing emergency services.
Smoke billowed near skyscrapers in images circulated on social media, which AFP could not verify.
Two other devices were destroyed by air defenses in the Mojaysky districts, 12 km from central Moscow, and Khimki in the capital region, about 20 km northwest of the Kremlin, the Defense Ministry said.
Air traffic at the international airports Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo in Moscow was briefly interrupted and then resumed, said TASS, citing the emergency services.
Russian territory is now being attacked by drones almost every day, as has Moscow and its region every day since Friday.
On Friday, a plane was shot down by Moscow forces and crashed in the exhibition center area, next to the Moscow city skyscrapers.
In the summer, more planes were destroyed over Moscow’s business district, the Russian capital’s main business district, and in May two drones were shot down near the Kremlin.
In Ukraine, Russian forces attacked “the villages of the Lyman community” on Tuesday evening in eastern Ukraine: “In Torske three people were killed and one injured, in Zakitne another civilian was injured,” wrote the head of the military administration of Donetsk region , Pavlo Kyrylenko, on Telegram.
“According to preliminary data, the invaders attacked the villages with artillery,” the Donetsk region prosecutor’s office said on its Facebook page.
Those killed in Torske were two women and one man, aged 63 to 88, who were sitting on a bench at the time of the strike, prosecutors added.
Moscow also said it repelled an armed invasion by Ukraine into the Bryansk border region from its territory on Tuesday.
On the Black Sea side, where clashes at sea have multiplied since Moscow scrapped a deal to export Ukrainian grain, Russia reported Tuesday it had “destroyed” two Ukrainian military ships.
The Russian defense said it had sunk a Ukrainian military ship in an area it controls in the Black Sea, as well as a US-made Ukrainian launch off Serpents’ Island, which was liberated by Kiev in 2022.
Since Moscow pulled out of the grain deal in July, Russia has stepped up bombing of Ukraine’s port infrastructure. For its part, Kiev has used drones to attack the Russian fleet, an oil tanker or the bridges to Crimea annexed in 2014.
Ukraine has also established a sea corridor for the Joseph Schulte, a cargo ship that reached Turkey last week without being attacked by Russia.