Russian forces had fired a barrage of missiles at Kyiv on Monday, sending panicked residents running for shelter in an unusual daytime attack on the Ukrainian capital following overnight strikes.
“This morning, at dawn, a drone attack caused minor damage to several buildings. All the city’s emergency services are on the scene ... No one has been seriously injured so far,” Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region, said many drones had been downed near the capital.
“This morning, the residents of certain districts in the Moscow region could hear explosions, it was our anti-air missile defence system,” he wrote.
“Several drones were shot down while approaching Moscow,” he wrote, urging residents to keep calm and adding that “all rescue services are doing their work”.
Moscow, located more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from Ukraine, has only rarely been targeted by drone attacks since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, even though such attacks have become more common elsewhere in Russia.
Images posted on social media showed traces of smoke in the sky. Others showed a broken window.
Sobyanin said the residents of two buildings damaged in Tuesday’s strikes had been evacuated and added that they “can return to their apartments once the special services have finished their work”.
In early May, two drones were shot down over the Kremlin in an attack blamed on Ukraine.
The Kremlin said there was “no threat at the moment” for residents of Moscow and the surrounding region, following the morning drone attack that Russia blamed on Ukraine.
“Thank God, there were no victims and there is no threat at the moment for residents of Moscow and the Moscow region,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The Kremlin also said Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed in “real time” as a swarm of drones hit Moscow on Tuesday morning.
“The president’s working day started very early,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “He was receiving information in real time from the defence ministry, the mayor of Moscow, the governor of the Moscow region and the emergencies ministry.”
According to The Kremlin, an unprecedented drone attack on Moscow was a “response” by Kyiv to a recent Russian hit in Ukraine.
“It is completely clear that we are talking about response acts by the Kyiv regime to very effective strikes on a command centre (in Ukraine),” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, without clarifying where the Russian strike took place.
