Russian officials said on Tuesday they shot down at least 15 drones around Moscow overnight in a wave of attacks that set residential buildings on fire, killed a woman and forced the suspension of more than 30 flights in the capital of the Russian Federation.
The Ukrainians attacked the Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, the second largest in the Russian capital, with drone, as well as the urban districts of Podolsk, Ramenskoye, Lyubertsy, Domodedovo and Kolomna, Ukrainskaia Pravda reported.
Nighttime drone strikes damaged at least two high-rise buildings in the Ramenskoye district of the Moscow Region, setting fire to several apartments, Moscow Governor Andrei Vorobiov said on Telegram.
A 46-year-old woman died and three people were injured in Ramenskoye, Vorobiov said. He added that 43 people were evacuated to temporary accommodation centers. Ramenskoye district, about 50 km southeast of the Kremlin, has a population of about a quarter of a million people, according to official data.
Russia’s RIA news agency reported that both Domodedovo and Zhukovo airports were closed to air traffic, with more than 30 domestic and international flights suspended at these airports and other terminals serving the Russian capital.
Telegram channels SHOT and Base in Russia, which are close to Russian security services, posted videos of a residential building on fire, saying five apartments were destroyed in the drone strike in the Ramenskoye district.
Authorities in the Tula region, which borders the Moscow region to the north, told the state-run Russian news agency that debris from a drone fell on a fuel and energy facility, but that the facility’s “technological process” was not affected.
Tuesday’s attacks follow an avalanche of drones launched by Ukraine in early September, which mainly targeted Russian energy and electrical facilities.
The attacks come at a critical time in the war, with Russia waging an offensive in eastern Ukraine while still struggling to expel Kiev’s forces, which crossed its western border in a surprise incursion in August.
Russian officials usually do not disclose the full extent of the damage caused by the Ukrainian attacks. Reuters says it could not independently verify the Russian media reports. Ukraine did not comment on the information provided by Moscow.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in their attacks.
Ukraine has pressed the United States for permission to use more powerful Western-supplied weapons to inflict greater damage inside Russia and reduce Moscow’s ability to continue its attacks on Ukraine, which it has invaded -o in February 2022.
Whoever plays with matches and starts a fire at home which subsequently spreads to the neighbours’ house, causes the neighbour to react! Take away the matches from the kid before the entire neighbourhood is set on fire. Enough is enough!