Ukrainian drone attacks Moscow building. Ukraine launched a drone attack on a building in Moscow, resulting in an explosion heard throughout the city’s commercial centre after it was shot down by Russian air defence.
According to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, the drone was shot down by a Russian air defence team as its debris fell on the city’s Expo Centre.
This is the most recent in a series of similar attacks on the Russian capital.
Unverified social media footage showed a thick, grey plume of smoke rising from Moscow following the drone attack.
The Ukrainian government did not immediately respond to the latest drone attack, but it has never openly admitted to carrying out attacks against Moscow-based targets.
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As Ukrainian drone attacks Moscow building, according to a Telegram post by Russia’s military, the attack occurred around 4:00 p.m. local time (01:00 GMT).
The drone “changed its flight path” after activating the city’s air defence systems, falling on a non-residential building in Moscow’s Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment area, according to the military’s Telegram post, with no reports of casualties.
The Moscow Expo Centre is a large exhibition space used for conferences and conventions.
The strike caused “a powerful explosion,” according to a witness who was nearby.
The debris, however, did not start a fire, according to the Russian defence ministry. According to Sobyanin, the drone caused “no significant damage” to the structure.
According to Russian state-owned media Tass, one of the center’s outer walls has partially collapsed, affecting an area of approximately 30 square metres (323 square feet).
Until earlier this year, Moscow was unaffected by the conflict in Ukraine, but in May and July, it was targeted by drone strikes, which destroyed several buildings and urban centres.
According to the BBC, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated at the time that the war was “returning to Russian territory” and that this was an “inevitable, natural, and absolutely fair process.”
“Hours before the latest strike in Moscow, a Ukrainian sea drone was destroyed during an attempted attack on Russia’s naval fleet in the Black Sea”, Russia’s defence ministry confirmed.