Russia Blames Ukraine for Drone Attack on Moscow

The Russian Defense Ministry has accused Ukraine of launching a “terrorist act” against the country’s capital early on Monday.

According to the ministry, Russia’s air defense forces successfully “suppressed and crashed” two Ukrainian drones, with no casualties reported.

“A Kyiv regime attempt to carry out a terrorist act using two drones on objects on the territory of the city of Moscow was stopped,” the ministry wrote on the Telegram channel. “Two Ukrainian drones were suppressed and crashed. There are no casualties.”

Two drone attacks were recorded at around four o’clock on Monday morning, causing damage to buildings near the defense ministry in the Russian capital. One of the drones fell on Komsomolsky Prospekt, close to Russia’s Defense Ministry, while the other struck a business center located on Likhacheva Street near one of Moscow’s main ring roads.

Investigative journalist Khristo Grozev believes that the choice of the attack’s location was a shrewd decision. The targeted house at 17 Komsomolsky Prospekt, where the remains of the second drone were discovered, holds strategic significance due to its proximity to both a military orchestra and the headquarters of the GRU's (the intelligence service of the Russian Federation’s General Staff of the Armed Forces) cyber groups.

Despite Moscow’s distance of approximately 500 km, or 310 miles, from the Ukrainian border, the city has experienced multiple drone attacks this year, with one even hitting the Kremlin in May.

Earlier this month, Russia reported successfully intercepting and downing five Ukrainian drones. These unmanned aircraft were responsible for causing disruptions to the operations of Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport.

Meanwhile, in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, an ammunition depot also came under a drone attack. The incident occurred in the Dzhankoi district in the northern part of the peninsula. While there were no casualties reported in the drone attack, authorities decided to evacuate residents from nearby settlements as a precautionary measure.

A Ukrainian defense source reportedly confirmed Kyiv’s involvement in a drone attack on Moscow early Monday morning, referring to the incident as a “special operation” by Ukraine’s military intelligence.