According to the Russian Defense Ministry, its air defense forces intercepted and destroyed two Ukrainian drones over Moscow.
Russian Air Defense Forces have “suppressed” a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry announced, accusing Kiev of committing a “terrorist act” against the country’s capital.
The attack early Monday came a day after Ukraine vowed to “retaliate” for a Russian missile attack on the Black Sea port of Odessa.
“An attempt by the Kiev regime to use two drones to carry out a terrorist attack on objects on the territory of the city of Moscow was stopped,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.
“Two Ukrainian drones were knocked down and crashed. There are no injuries.”
There was no comment from Ukraine.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the drone strikes took place around 4:00 a.m. local time (01:00 GMT).
The Russian news agency TASS reported that one of the drones crashed on Komsomolsky Prospekt near the Russian Defense Ministry, while another hit a business center on Likhacheva Street, near one of Moscow’s main ring roads.
The Portal news agency reported two loud explosions before the reported attacks.
RIA Novosti news agency released video of the business center showing some damage to the top of the tall building.
The road around it was closed.
Moscow is about 500 km (310 miles) from the Ukrainian border but has been hit by several drone strikes this year, with one even hitting the Kremlin in May.
Earlier this month, Russia said it shot down five Ukrainian drones that disrupted operations at Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport.
Russian forces have been bombing the Ukrainian port city of Odessa since Moscow last week withdrew from a deal allowing Ukrainian grain to be exported through the Black Sea.
The latest strike in the city on Sunday killed two people and badly damaged a historic cathedral.
Clergy rescued icons from rubble at the badly damaged Transfiguration Cathedral, which was demolished under Stalin in 1936 and rebuilt in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Ukrainian government condemned the cathedral strike as a “war crime” and said it was “destroyed twice: by Stalin and by Putin”.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyi announced retaliatory measures: “You will definitely feel it,” he said.
“We cannot allow people around the world to get used to terrorist attacks,” Zelenskyy added in his evening address late Sunday.
“The targets of all these rockets are not just cities, villages or people. Their goal is humanity and the foundations of our entire European culture.”