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The city of Moscow suffered a drone attack on Tuesday morning: it was carried out between six and seven in the morning local time and three buildings were hit, causing minor damage. It is currently unknown who carried out the attack. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the drones were 8 in all and that they were all intercepted by Russian defense systems: according to the ministry, they hit the three buildings after being deflected from their original target, which however was not communicated.
The Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of being responsible for the attack, which it called “a terrorist attack”. Ukrainian authorities denied the allegations and said they had nothing to do with the attack, as they often did during the war in cases of attacks on Russian territory. According to an analysis of the videos and photos made by BBCthe drones would not be the Ukrainian-made UJ-22s, but at the moment there is no more information on what types of drones they are.
The attack on Moscow was carried out just hours after the Ukrainian capital Kiev suffered a new attack by Russian drones, just before dawn, in which at least one person was killed: it was the third consecutive night in which the Ukrainian capital was attacked, with residents forced to seek shelter in bomb shelters. Tuesday was also the 17th Russian attack on Kiev since the beginning of May: according to the Ukrainian army, the Iranian-made drones involved in the operation would have been 31, and the defense forces they would have destroyed 29 of them before they achieved their goals.
The attack on Moscow is the second carried out on the Russian capital with the use of drones since the beginning of May: in the night between 2 and 3 May two drones had attempted to hit the Kremlin, i.e. the set of buildings in the center of Moscow where the official residence of President Vladimir Putin and the headquarters of various institutions of the Russian state are located, among other things. Russia then called the attack an attempt to assassinate the Russian president.
Instead, Tuesday’s attack targeted three less central buildings in the capital. Second the Russian news agency RIA Novosti the affected buildings are one in Profsoyuznaya 98 street, the other in Atlasova street, in the administrative district of Novomoskovsk, and the third in Leninsky avenue. From official statements and videos that have emerged, the damage appears to be limited to the facade and some windows, but the residents have been temporarily evacuated. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said two people needed medical attention after receiving minor injuries.
Photos showing the aftermath of the attack on #Kyiv. pic.twitter.com/yyd87CTPnP
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) May 30, 2023