Russia downs Ukrainian drone west of Moscow, two airports reopen
Russian air defences on Friday downed a Ukrainian drone as it flew towards an unspecified target in Moscow, Defence Ministry said, the latest in a flurry of drone attacks on the Russian capital.
Earlier, Moscow’s Vnukovo airport and Kaluga airport, some 150 km southwest of the capital, were temporarily shut due to a suspected drone flight. They later reopened, Reuters reported.
“... 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.
Earlier, Vnukovo airport said it had been compelled to suspend all flights “for reasons beyond the control of the airport”, adding that some flights had been redirected to other airports in the Moscow region. It gave no further information.
Flights later resumed at both Vnukovo and Kaluga airports.
Drone air strikes deep inside Russia have increased since a drone was destroyed over the Kremlin in early May. Civilian areas of the capital were hit later in May and a Moscow business district was targeted twice in three days earlier this month.
Russia said on Thursday that it had downed 13 Ukrainian drones seeking to attack Moscow and also the largest city in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
In recent days, Ukrainian remotely piloted boats, also referred to as drones, have attacked a Russian fuel tanker and a navy base at Russia’s Novorossiysk port on the Black Sea.
Ukraine typically does not comment on who is behind attacks on Russian territory, although officials have publicly expressed satisfaction over them.
On Thursday, Ukrainian authorities ordered a mandatory evacuation of nearly 12,000 civilians from 37 towns and villages near the northeastern front line as Russia ramped up the assault to capture territory already once seized during the conflict, AFP reported.
Ukraine urged civilians to evacuate the eastern Kharkiv region, where Russian forces reportedly are making a concerted effort to punch through the front line.