Moscow suffered another drone strike on Monday night when a high-rise building housing a number of government ministries was hit for the second time in two days, with Kyiv warning Russia that it will face further drone attacks.
An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, tweeted that the Kremlin will soon “collect all of their debts” over the invasion of Ukraine with further strikes on Russian soil. While Ukraine stops short of directly claiming such attacks, of which there have been a flurry in recent weeks, officials often show their satisfaction and seek to undermine Russia in any way they can as Kyiv’s forces press on with their counteroffensive.
“Moscow is rapidly getting used to a full-fledged war,” Mr Podolyak wrote on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter. He said Russia should expect “more unidentified drones, more collapse, more civil conflicts, more war”.
The building that was hit by the drone is known as the “IQ quarter”, which houses the Russian ministry of economic development, the digital ministry and the ministry of industry and trade.
While the repeated drone incidents have not caused casualties or major damage, they have provoked widespread unease and are an embarrassment for Russian president Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin, which is constantly seeking to give the impression to the country’s citizens that its invasion – now nearly 18 months long – is proceeding according to Moscow’s plan.
Moscow resident Alexander Gusev, 67, said: “In this situation, any place can be hit, so it is quite hard to feel 100 per cent safe... We don’t know what will hit us and where.”
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, said: “Indeed, a threat exists, it is obvious, but measures are being taken.”
Several panes of glass were damages or destroyed— (AP)
In a statement, the Russian defence ministry claimed to have thwarted what it labelled an “attempted terrorist attack” and downed two drones west of Moscow’s city centre. It said another one was foiled by jamming equipment and went “out of control”. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that was the drone that hit the same tower that had been struck on Sunday. “The facade has been damaged on the 21st floor. Glazing was destroyed,” Mr Sobyanin said. Vnukovo airport, one of three major airports serving the capital, briefly shut down but later resumed full operations.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian regional officials said a doctor was killed and five medical workers were wounded in Russian shelling of a hospital in the southern city of Kherson.
“Today at 11.10am [GMT 0810] the enemy launched another attack on the peaceful residents of our community,” military administration head Roman Mrochko wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said four medical workers had been wounded in addition to a badly wounded nurse whose injuries were reported earlier. Mr Mrochko said the young doctor had only worked in his job for a few days and that the nurse was in a critical condition.
Meanwhile, Russia also claimed it had stopped attacks by sea drones on its navy ships, plus civilian vessels in the Black Sea. Mr Podolyak later said that such statements were “fictitious” and that “Ukraine has not attacked, is not attacking and will not attack civilian vessels, nor any other civilian objects”. Mr Podolyak said nothing of attacks on Russian navy ships, which Ukraine considers legitimate targets given the invasion it is battling.
Moscow has said it would treat any ships leaving or entering Ukrainian ports as valid targets after it ended a deal for Ukraine to export its grain through the Black Sea last month. Russia has since struck Ukrainian ports and grain infrastructure repeatedly.
Kyiv has previously used drones to target Russia’s navy base in Crimea and the bridge that Russia has built to the peninsula. Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and Kyiv has pledged to recover it along with other territory seized by Moscow since its full-scale invasion began last February.
Late on Tuesday, the Moscow-installed governor of the Sevastopol district of Crimea said a drone had been shot down there too.
Reuters contributed to this report
