Major drone strike hits residential area of Moscow in apparent first

(LONDON) — Several drones struck Moscow early on Tuesday, damaging residential buildings in the Russian capital, the mayor said.

The pre-dawn attack “caused minor damage to several buildings” in a residential area, according to Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin. Some residents were evacuated from their apartments due to “safety reasons” as first responders surveyed the damage, Sobyanin said.

“All municipal emergency services are currently at the scene of the incident,” the mayor wrote on his official Telegram channel. “They will find out the circumstances of what happened.”

It’s believed to be the first major drone strike on a residential area of Moscow.

No one was seriously injured in the attack, according to Sobyanin. Two people sought and received medical attention on site for unspecified injures but did not require hospitalization, the mayor said.

Russian emergency services told state news agency TASS that drone-like fragments were found around at least one of the buildings and that apartment windows were shattered on several floors.

Eight drones targeted Moscow, five of which were shot down while the other three were jammed, causing them to veer off course, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The rare attack came as Russia continues to wage war in neighboring Ukraine. The Russian defense ministry called Tuesday’s drone strike a “terrorist attack” by the “Kyiv regime” and said Moscow will react “as harshly as possible to the actions of Ukrainian militants.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday’s drone attack on Moscow was Kyiv’s retaliation against the effective Russian strikes “on a decision-making center” on Sunday.

On May 3, Russia accused Ukraine of attacking the Kremlin with drones. Russia later blamed the United States for the attack, a claim rejected by Washington.

Meanwhile, in recent days, Russia has launched a series of drone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. At around 2 a.m. local time on Tuesday, Kyiv residents once again awoke to the sound of air raid sirens as dozens of Russian drones targeted the city for a third straight day.

Most of the drones were intercepted and shot down, but the fallen debris sparked fires that engulfed several cars, houses and residential buildings, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. At least one person was killed and 33 others were injured.

“If the Russians can make Kyiv a nightmare, why do the people of Moscow rest?” Klitschko said in a televised address on Tuesday.