Russian air defenses destroyed a Ukrainian drone in Moscow and two naval drones that attacked patrol boats in the Black Sea, causing no damage or casualties, officials said on Friday.
“This morning, during an attempt to reach Moscow, the air defense forces destroyed a drone.
The capital’s emergency services are on the scene and, according to initial information, no fatalities or injuries have been identified, Sergei Sobyanin added.
“The partial collapse of an external wall was detected in one of the pavilions of the Exhibition Center,” Russian state news agency TASS said, citing emergency services.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the attack was carried out at 04:00 (02:00 in Lisbon) and that it targeted “objects located in Moscow and the Moscow region.”
The Exhibition Center is located about five kilometers from the Kremlin, the seat of the Russian Government.
The airspace near Vnukovo International Airport, one of the airports serving the Russian capital, was closed for some time and departures and arrivals were postponed, TASS added.
Also this morning, the Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of attacking two of its patrol boats with naval surface drones 237 kilometers southwest of Sevastopol on the Black Sea at 10:55 p.m. (8:55 p.m. in Lisbon).
According to a statement, cited by TASS, the attack was directed against the Pytlivyi and Vasily Bykov patrol boats, which managed to destroy the drones with their own weapons.
The ministry recalled that on August 4 the Ukrainian army had attacked the Novorossiysk naval base, where one of the main Russian ports on the Black Sea is located, with two similar drones.
Drone strikes in Russian-controlled territories have increased in recent weeks, mainly targeting Moscow and the Crimean peninsula, annexed by the Russians in 2014.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on July 30 that the war was “gradually returning to the territory of Russia, to its symbolic centers and military bases.”
Naval drones have attacked Russian ships on several occasions in recent weeks since Moscow refused in mid-July to renew a UN-brokered deal allowing the export of Ukrainian grain.
The first cargo ship to leave Ukraine after the end of the grain deal reached Turkish waters on Thursday, despite a Russian siege.
Zelensky said the freighter was traveling along the route of “a new humanitarian corridor” defined by Kiev, after Russia last weekend fired warning shots at a freighter headed for Izmail, a port on the river. Danube in southern Ukraine.
Source: TSF
