Moscow Once Again Targeted by Ukrainian Drone Attack

The Russian army announced that its air defense units repelled a "terrorist attack" from Ukraine on Tuesday, August 1, and shot down drones launched towards Moscow. According to Reuters and the Russian army, one drone, which had gone out of control, collided with a high-rise residential tower that was also targeted in a similar manner last week. Sergey Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, stated: "One of the drones that targeted the capital hit the same Moscow tower that was struck earlier in the week." The Russian Ministry of Defense released a statement on Telegram saying, "On the night of August 1, the Kyiv regime's terrorist attempt to carry out deadly drone attacks on targets in Moscow was thwarted." The ministry also added that two drones were shot down in the western outskirts of the city center. Referring to a commercial center in the capital, the ministry noted: "One drone was hit by electronic radio equipment and, while out of control, crashed within the area of non-residential buildings in Moscow." Vnukovo Airport, one of the three main airports in the capital, was temporarily closed but later resumed full operations. Moscow was also hit by a drone last Sunday, one of several similar attacks that caused limited damage but raised widespread concerns. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, stated a day after the incident that Ukraine's attacks on Moscow and other targets in Russia are "desperate measures" and that Russia is taking all possible actions to protect against these attacks. This week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky remarked regarding the drone attacks that "the war is returning to Russian territory and to its symbolic centers and military bases." Ukraine has almost never publicly claimed responsibility for attacks inside Russia or in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine, but in recent months has stated that destroying Russian military infrastructure aids Kyiv's counteroffensive. Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, calling it a "special military operation" to disarm its neighbor. This war has so far killed thousands, displaced millions, and turned many cities in eastern and southern Ukraine into rubble. The war between Russia and Ukraine continues with bloody battles ongoing.