Military foils drone attack on Moscow – mayor

Russian forces have destroyed a Ukrainian drone that was heading towards Moscow, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in the early hours of Friday.

“There was an attempted attack by an enemy drone, which has been shot down,” Sobyanin wrote on his Telegram channel, adding that there were “no damage or casualties” from the overnight incursion.

The Russian Defense Ministry later released a statement saying the drone was aiming for “sites on the territory of Moscow Region” before it was neutralized by air defenses.

The incident represents the second UAV attack this week, after drones crashed into two non-residential buildings in the Russian capital on Monday. 

Several UAVs were shot down or disabled earlier this month in the city’s southwestern suburbs.

Russian officials have condemned the raids as “acts of terrorism.”

Russia recently began striking port infrastructure of the Ukrainian city of Odessa in response to a naval drone attack on the bridge connecting Crimea with mainland Russia, which killed two people and injured a 14-year-old girl. Kiev accused Russia’s military of hitting civilian sites. The Russian Defense Ministry rejected this claim, stating that its troops were only striking military-linked targets.