Moscow Airport Closed Briefly as Ukrainian Drone Strike Damages Two Buildings

Sun Jul 30 2023
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MOSCOW: The Russian Defence Ministry said that three Ukrainian drones were put down over Moscow Sunday, a strike that also briefly shut Moscow airport.

Media reported that one of the drones was downed on Moscow’s outskirts, and two others were “blocked by electronic warfare” and smashed into an office compound.

Moscow Airport Closed Briefly as Ukrainian Drone Strike Damages Two Buildings

Moscow and its vicinities, lying about 500 km from the Ukrainian border, had been hardly targeted during the war in Ukraine until several drone strikes this year.

The drone attack reported Sunday is the latest in a series of recent drone strikes including on the Kremlin and Russian towns close to the border of Ukraine — that Russia has blamed on Ukraine.

Russia’s Defence Ministry called it an “attempted terrorist assault”.

In a statement via social media, the Defence Ministry said, “On Sunday, the Ukraine’s attempted terrorist strike with drones in Moscow was foiled,”.

Local Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on Telegram that the “fronts of two city office towers were also slightly damaged”. He maintained that no one was injured in the drone strike.

According to the TASS official news agency of Russia that Moscow’s Vnukovo airport was “closed for arrivals and departures, and many flights are redirected to other airports”.

Earlier, a shower of drone assaults briefly interrupted air traffic at the same airport.  Russia’s foreign ministry said such strikes “would not be possible without the support provided to Kyiv by Washington and NATO.

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