A new drone strike against Moscow on Saturday forced the temporary closure of the three main airports serving the city, Russian state media reported.
Authorities have blamed Ukraine for what appears to be the latest near-daily attack on the Russian capital and the surrounding region, but Ukrainian authorities have yet to acknowledge their involvement.
Since early this year, kyiv has tried to drive the 18-month war into the heart of Russia, also recently claiming it was behind attacks on Russian military assets far behind the front lines.
Russia’s Defense Ministry and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said a drone was shot down over the Istra district of the Moscow region, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Red Square. Sobyanin advanced in a Telegram post that there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
According to the Russian state agency Tass, the Sheremetevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports suspended flights this morning for more than an hour.
Russian Telegram channels on Saturday published videos, some of them apparently from home security cameras, of what they claimed was Russian air defense shooting down the drone. A video shows a car parked in front of what appears to be a suburban home, whose alarm begins to go off seconds after two explosions sound in the distance.
Russia and Ukraine exchanged several drone strikes earlier this week; kyiv reportedly took aim at Moscow and Kremlin forces launched another bombing raid on Ukrainian grain storage depots in what has recently become a signature tactic.
Also this week, kyiv claimed to have destroyed a major Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile defense system in occupied Crimea. Ukrainian media further claimed that Ukrainian saboteurs coordinated by Kiev’s military intelligence services carried out two recent drone strikes that destroyed and damaged bomber aircraft at airbases in Russia’s countryside.
Source: TSF
