Drones hit Moscow city center in latest attack blamed on Ukraine
Police officers block off part of the Moscow City area following a drone attack on July 30, 2023 | Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images
Several drones attacked the center of Moscow in the early hours of Sunday morning, in the latest assault on Russian territory that the city’s mayor blamed on Kyiv.
The drones hit two high-rise buildings in an area called Moscow City, a posh business district in the center of the Russian capital, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a Telegram statement on Sunday.
“Ukrainian drones attacked tonight. The facades of two city office towers were slightly damaged. There are no victims or injured,” Sobyanin said.
Russian media reported that a 50-story building in Moscow City was evacuated. And Russian social media users posted videos of blasts.
Russian media channel Astra reported that one of the drones damaged the 10th floor of an office building in Moscow City, where at least three Russian ministries have their offices — the Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Digital Development.
Ukraine did not officially take responsibility for the attack. “We can neither confirm nor deny,” Andriy Yusov, representative of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence, told POLITICO. Ukrainian officials almost never admit responsibility for military operations in Russian territory.
The Russian Defense Ministry said a third drone was shot down in the Moscow region.
The attack on Moscow happened the night after Ukrainian Armed Forces hit a key bridge in Chonhar. The Friday night bombing severely damaged one of the strategic supply routes for the Russian army occupying the south of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry Strategic Communications Center said in a statement on Saturday.
Vladimir Saldo, a Russian-installed official in the occupied part of the Kherson region, had said earlier Saturday that Ukrainian forces launched 12 Storm Shadow missiles at the bridge in Chonhar. He said that all missiles were shot down by Russian air defense, providing no evidence for his claim.
This is not the first attack on the Chonhar bridge. On June 22, Ukrainians attacked the bridge with a Storm Shadow missile, Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov, chief of the Main Operational Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said in a July 5 interview with the Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform.
The attack on the Chonhar bridge came the day after a missile damaged the city center of Taganrog in the Rostov region of Russia. Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region, said a missile fell near Chekhov Sad cafe in the city center. Sixteen people were wounded, but no one died, he said in a statement.
Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the Taganrog attack. The Russian Defense Ministry accused Kyiv of using a Soviet-made S200 missile to attack Taganrog. It said air defense shot down the weapon but falling debris caused damage and injuries.
Russian independent media Istories reported that a missile hit 10 kilometers away from Russian strategic bombers at an airfield used to bomb Ukraine.
Source: POLITICO Europe
