Drone Hits Building In Central Moscow, No Casualties

Illustration - The Bayraktar TB2 drone belongs to Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons/armyinform.com.ua)

JAKARTA - Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said a drone hit a building in downtown Moscow that was being built. The drone that hit the building under construction at the Moscow City complex has been silenced by an electronic warfare system. Several windows were destroyed in two five-story buildings across from them. Emergency services are examining the area. There were no reports of casualties and it was not clear who carried out the attack. Meanwhile, according to the defense ministry, the air defenses also shot down two drones in the Mozhaisk and Khamki districts in Moscow. Russian officials, reported by the BBC, Wednesday, August 23, described it as "an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack". Ukraine usually does not comment on who was behind the attack within the Russian territory. All flights were suspended to and from Moscow airports on Wednesday morning, but then returned to normal operations. Flight suspension measures have been taken repeatedly in recent days. The AFP news agency reported it was the sixth straight night of airstrikes on the territory of the Russian capital. Responding to reports of a downed drone, the US State Department said Washington was not pushing for drone attacks in Russia. US officials added it was up to Ukraine to decide how to defend itself, and that Russia could end the war at any time by withdrawing from its neighbors. Also last night, three elderly people were killed in a Russian shooting near the eastern city of Lyman, eastern Ukraine, officials said. Allegations of drone attacks in Russia have become increasingly common in recent months. On Tuesday, the Russian defense ministry said it had taken down two drones in Moscow, and two more were intercepted in the Bryansk region near the Ukrainian border. Sobyanin said Russian air defenses had shot down two drones west of the capital in the districts of Krasnogorsk and Chasty. No injuries were reported. The ministry also said a Russian warplane had destroyed a Ukrainian reconnaissance vessel in the Black Sea that sailed near Russian gas production facilities on Tuesday.

Ukraine did not claim responsibility for any drone strike on Tuesday but President Volodymyr Zelensky previously said that the attack on Russian territory was an attack on Russia. "an unavoidable, natural, and truly fair process".