Two unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed en route to Moscow in the early hours of Sunday, while at least half a dozen attempted to strike various targets in the Crimean Peninsula, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
“The air defense repelled a drone attack on Moscow over the Istra district west of the city,” Mayor Sergey Sobyanin confirmed on Telegram early Sunday morning, adding that the emergency services were responding to the incident.
The military said that a plane-type UAV was detected and destroyed around 1:45am Moscow time in Istra, while another drone was intercepted over the Domodedovo district several hours later. According to preliminary data, there are no destructions or injuries on the ground, authorities added.
As during previous air raid alerts, Moscow’s three main airports – Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo, and Vnukovo – were briefly shut down as precaution.
Meanwhile, another “attempted Ukrainian terrorist attack was thwarted” in Crimea, with two drones intercepted west of the peninsula around 1:15am local time, according to the Defense Ministry.
Four more drones were intercepted over the Black Sea in the vicinity of Crimea between 1:45am and 2:20am, the military added in another statement.
Ukrainian UAVs have repeatedly targeted the capital and other Russian regions in recent months, with most of them either shot down mid-air or crashing due to signal-jamming.
Kiev has stepped up attacks on Russian territory as its much-touted ground offensive, launched in early June, had failed to yield any significant victories. Several UAVs crashed in Moscow City, the Russian capital’s business and financial hub, without causing any casualties.