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Moscow was hit by drones Tuesday morning, in what appeared to be the first attack on residential areas of the Russian capital since the invasion of Ukraine.
It comes weeks after an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin itself and following days of deadly Russian bombardment against civilians in Kyiv, as events far from the front lines take the spotlight ahead of Ukraine’s planned counteroffensive.
Tuesday’s incident caused damage to some buildings in Moscow and forced residents to evacuate homes, officials said, though the Kremlin largely shrugged off the dramatic display that its war was increasingly coming home.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the attack sought to intimidate the public, and commended the work of the capital’s air defense.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that eight unmanned aerial vehicles were involved in the strikes. All drones were destroyed, it added, with three losing control after being jammed and the other five shot down by anti-aircraft systems. The ministry blamed Ukraine for what it called a “terrorist attack.”
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in an interview that his country “has nothing directly to do” with the drone attacks on Moscow but was “pleased to observe and predict an increase in the number of attacks.”
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that drones had “caused minor damage to several buildings.” In a series of posts on the Telegram messaging app, he said two people “sought medical attention” and there were no serious injuries.
He added that some residents were evacuated from some parts of the two affected buildings “for safety reasons” while emergency services were working on the scene.
The regional governor, Andrei Vorobyov, said that “several drones” were shot down as they approached the city.
Photos and video shared on Russian social media appeared to show a drone flying over a town in the western Moscow region, and smoke and the sound of an explosion in a village in the same area.
