A huge fire has reportedly broken out at a warehouse just four miles away from Vladimir Putin’s official residence.
According to Russian state media, the fire occurred in Odintsovo, west of Moscow.
The town lies between Putin’s official residence and Vnukovo airport and was reported around midnight Moscow time on Thursday.
As of yet, the cause of the fire remains unknown but emergency services said it had spread over 21,500 square feet.
A large fire in Odintsovo, Moscow region of Russia.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) August 10, 2023
By preliminary information, a warehouse is on fire. pic.twitter.com/3u3Yz4RkXl
Russian officials also claimed to have downed a Ukrainian drone headed for Moscow on Friday.
“An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on a facility in Moscow was thwarted,” the ministry said in a statement, adding the drone was jammed and crashed in a forest west of Moscow.
“There are no casualties and no damage,” it said although some flights were redirected to other airports in the Moscow region.
Earlier this week, a separate blast occurred at a factory north of Moscow that makes optical equipment for Russia’s security forces, injuring 45 people, six of them severely.
This followed what Russian officials claimed was an attempted drone attack on the capital.
One of the drones came down in the Domodedovo district south of Moscow, and the other fell near the Minsk highway west of the city, according to the mayor of the city, Sergei Sobyanin.
In May, Russian authorities accused Ukraine of attempting to attack the Kremlin with two drones in an effort to assassinate the Russian president.
The more recent drone attacks have aimed at targets from ranging from the Russian capital to the annexed Crimean Peninsula.
