A Ukrainian drone damaged an affluent Moscow residential tower with no casualties, the third straight night of drone attacks before Russia’s Victory Day parade.
A Ukrainian drone struck an affluent residential high-rise in Moscow early Monday, damaging the building’s facade but causing no reported casualties, as Russia prepared for a scaled-back Victory Day parade on Red Square later in the week.
The strike, less than 10 kilometers from the Kremlin and Red Square, marked the third consecutive night of drone attacks on the Russian capital. It also underscored pressure on Moscow’s air defenses as Ukraine continues to use longer-range drones against targets deep inside Russia.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said two other drones were intercepted. Vnukovo and Domodedovo international airports suspended operations overnight, another sign of the security disruptions that drone alerts have brought to the outskirts of the capital.
Russia’s defense ministry said 117 drones were intercepted over several Russian regions between Sunday and Monday. Sixty were aimed at the St. Petersburg region, where regional governor Aleksandr Drodzhenko described the attack as "massive."
The residential tower hit Monday is in southwest Moscow, in an upscale area within roughly six miles of the Kremlin and Red Square, where Russia is due to mark the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany on 9 May.
The Kremlin said last week it would reduce the scale of this year’s Red Square parade because of what it called a "terrorist threat" from Ukraine. For the first time since 2008, the event is not expected to include armored vehicles or missile systems.
Several local phone operators also announced that mobile internet would be restricted in Moscow for much of the week for security reasons, Russian media reported Monday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Kremlin was afraid that "drones will fly over Red Square," adding: "We need to keep up the pressure."
Ukrainian drones have reached Moscow several times since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, though successful strikes so close to the center remain relatively rare. Much of the capital is protected by the Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile system, while drone alerts frequently disrupt air traffic at airports outside the city.
Ukraine has developed long-range drones capable of striking targets hundreds of miles from its borders. Those systems have increasingly been used against Russian energy infrastructure and refineries as Kyiv seeks to cut into Russian oil production and revenue.
Zelensky said Sunday that three Russian oil tankers, a cruise-missile carrier warship and a patrol boat had been struck in separate attacks on two Russian ports. He said the tankers were part of Russia’s so-called shadow fleet used to evade Western sanctions.
Russia, meanwhile, continues to launch aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities. Ukrainian authorities said Monday that four people were killed and 18 injured in a missile strike near Kharkiv, close to the Russian border. The Moscow strike left open whether security measures around Red Square would be tightened further before Saturday’s parade.
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