Russia said on Tuesday it had downed five Ukrainian drones in the Moscow region, calling it a ‘terrorist act’ that disrupted the functioning of an international airport.
Four of the drones were shot down by Moscow air defences near the Vnukovo airport while a fifth was jammed and crashed into the Odintsovo district of the Moscow region, the Russian defence ministry said. It added that no one was injured.
Reports said that the single drone targeted a military base that sits about 25 miles away from the airport that is sometimes used by Vladimir Putin.
Russia pinned the blame on Ukraine, which has not commented on the attacks that are understood to have used kamikaze drones, which damage and destroy targets by crashing an explosive payload directly into them.
‘An attempt by the Kyiv regime to attack a zone where civil infrastructure is located, including an airport that receives international flights, is a new terrorist act,’ foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram.
Russia said on Tuesday it had downed five Ukrainian drones in the Moscow region, calling it a ‘terrorist act’ that disrupted the functioning of an international airport. Footage on social media channels purportedly showed buildings in flames after the drones were downed
The Russian military said it had downed all five drones.
Four drones were destroyed by anti-air defence systems while a fifth was neutralised by ‘electronic means’ before crashing, it said.
Emergency services cited by the RIA Novosti news agency said one of the drones was neutralised at Kubinka, about 25 miles from Vnukovo airport.
The airport’s functioning was briefly interrupted by the attack.
Several flights were redirected to other airports and Russia’s air transport agency said traffic at Vnukovo resumed at 0500 GMT.
Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency said that other airports in Moscow and the Moscow region were operating normally.
State-run agency RIA Novosti also reported that two drones had been downed near the village of Valuevo in New Moscow, citing emergency services. The drones had fallen into an ‘open field’ and no casualties had been reported, it said.
However, an administrative building was reported to be damaged at the key Kubinka military air base some 48 miles southwest of the Kremlin.
Some reports say the damage was caused after it was downed by air defences.
A second wave of drones led to Vnukovo airport the diversion of at least ten incoming domestic and international flights.
The airport is routinely used by government officials including Putin and VIPs, and appears to have been closed for arrivals as a precaution due to exploding drones in the vicinity. The Vnukovo airport emergency was declared over at 8am local time.
Videos showed explosions caused by the suspected Ukrainian drones near Moscow.
The drones are not believed to have struck the territory of Vnukovo airport itself.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin called it ‘another Ukrainian drone attack attempt.’
‘Today there was another attempted attack by Ukrainian drones in New Moscow, and Moscow Region,’ he said on Tuesday.
‘So far, the attacks have been repelled by air defence forces and all detected UAVs have been eliminated. For security reasons, some flights have been temporarily diverted from Vnukovo Airport.’
He said there were ‘no casualties’ and ’emergency services are working at the scene’.
There was no immediate comment from Kyiv. Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia or on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.
Drone attacks have hit Russian cities throughout Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, but have intensified in recent months.
Moscow and its environs, lying some 500 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, have up to now been rarely targeted.
In early May, two drones were shot down above the Kremlin, and later the same month drones hit Moscow high-rises. And in late May, a drone strike came close to Putin’s palatial official residence Novo-Ogaryovo, near Moscow.
The double drone strike that hit the Kremlin was portrayed by the Russians as an attempt to assassinate Vladimir Putin.
Kyiv said early Tuesday that Russia had launched 22 Iranian ‘Shahed’ attack drones at the Sumy, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Its forces had ‘destroyed’ 16 of the drones, it said.
A video purportedly shows a drone going up in smoke as it is brought down near residential buildings outside of Moscow
State-run agency RIA Novosti also reported that two drones had been downed near the village of Valuevo in New Moscow, citing emergency services. The drones had fallen into an ‘open field’ and no casualties had been reported, it said
Separately on Tuesday, a suspected Ukrainian Valkyrja strike drone was reportedly shot down in Belgorod border region, as was a Leleka-100 reconnaisance drone.
Reports said there were no casualties at Kubinka despite structural damage to an administrative building at the air base which houses strike aircraft and an air force display team.
Russia’s Federal Agency for Air Transport said: ‘For technical reasons, independent of the airport, restrictions have been introduced at Vnukovo on the acceptance and release of aircraft from 05:10.
‘Restrictions on the acceptance and release of aircraft at Vnukovo Airport were extended until 08:00 in the morning.
‘Other airports in Moscow and the Moscow region operate as normal.
‘All airport services and air traffic controllers of air traffic services operate as normal.’
Among the planes diverted to Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow were flights from Sharm El Sheikh and Dubai.
One of the jammed drones crashed into a garage and exploded in the village of Krivosheino, causing a large fire.
Two drones flying towards Moscow were reported over Kaluga region.
Eyewitnesses reported aircraft-type drones at an altitude of some 700ft.
One was black in colour, measuring around 10ft in wingspan. The other was greyish and smaller in size.
Other drones were said to be helicopter type.
Reports said drone attacks were between 4am and 6:30am local time.
Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: ‘The Kyiv regime’s attempt to attack an area where civilian infrastructure is located, including the airport, which incidentally also receives foreign flights, is yet another act of terrorism.
‘Considering that [Volodymyr] Zelensky is committing these attacks with weapons supplied by the West or purchased with Western funds, this is international terrorism.
‘The world community must realise that the USA, Britain and France, permanent members of the UN Security Council, are financing a terrorist regime.’
