Russia accuses Ukraine of attacking the same Moscow building that was attacked by a drone days ago

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A drone attacked a skyscraper in central Moscow early Tuesday morning. second time in around 48 hours, damaging the building’s façade and further underlining the vulnerability of the Russian capital. Russian authorities accused Ukraine of organizing the assault.

An adviser to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted that Moscow “is quickly getting used to a full-blown war,” neither confirming nor denying kyiv’s involvement.

Russian officials have claimed that the repeated attacks in the capital region reflect failures in Ukraine’s counter-offensive to retake Russian-occupied territory. Zelenskiy He said over the weekend that “war is gradually returning to Russian territory” but stopped short of taking responsibility.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down two Ukrainian drones outside Moscow and jammed another, crashing it into a skyscraper and damaging the building’s facade. The attack occurred in a business district of high-rise office buildings known as Moscow City, west of the Kremlin.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the drone crashed into the same building that was damaged in a similar attack on Sunday. IQ-Quarter, located 7.2 kilometers (4.5 miles) from the Kremlin, houses several government agencies, including the headquarters of the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The mayor said Tuesday’s attack did not result in any casualties.

It was not clear why the same building was attacked twice in a row. In both attacks, the Russian military said the drones that hit the skyscraper were stuck before crashing, prompting questions from even the Kremlin’s staunchest supporters.

Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the state television channel RT, said in a social media post that “a drone hitting the same tower for the second time in a row, where three federal ministries are located, at least requires explaining the comments that the electronic warfare brought them all down.”

Asked how protected the Russian capital is, given that the allegedly blocked drones hit the very building, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov redirected the question to the Defense Ministry, saying only that “the threat exists and they are being taking action.”

Sobyanin said the drone that hit the building on Tuesday struck the 21st floor, one of the floors that houses the Ministry of Economic Development. Photos of the scene showed several glass panels missing, exposing the charred interior of the building. According to the mayor, 150 square meters (about 1,600 square feet) of the building’s glass facade was damaged.

Russian news agency Interfax quoted Darya Levchenko, adviser to the economic development minister, as saying that ministry staff worked from home on Tuesday while damage to the office was assessed.

The Russian military also said that Ukrainian forces tried to attack two of its warships in the Black Sea, using maritime drones. Three drones attacked two patrol boats, Sergei Kotov and Vasily Bykov, 340 kilometers (210 miles) southwest of the Russian-controlled city of Sevastopol. on the Crimean peninsulareported the Ministry of Defense. All three drones were destroyed, according to the report.

Sevastopol Region Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev said a drone was shot down about 10 kilometers (6 miles) east of the city on Tuesday night, starting a forest fire.

Attacks on Moscow and Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, continue a deadly Russian missile attack on Kryvyi RihZelenskyy’s hometown in central Ukraine.

Monday’s attack partially destroyed a residential building and killed seven people. Dozens more were injured.

Russia’s land and sea border with Ukraine stretches for more than 2,200 kilometers (1,400 miles), meaning much of the line separating the two countries is not covered by defense radar, creating an opportunity for the drones.

“Depending on where they launch, if there is a way to get through the initial line of defense, then there will probably be a very poor ability to track them in real time,” said Professor Justin Bronk, an expert on military air. energy and technology at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense think tank in London.

The most advanced defense systems around Moscow “are typically optimized for ballistic missile defense and look for targets and objects approaching at extremely high speeds and from very high angles,” Bronk said.

Unlike ballistic missiles, drones can fly low and slow. That presents a challenge for radar systems, which scan higher altitudes and filter out slow-moving objects like birds.

In other developments on Tuesday, Russian forces attacked Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, with Iranian-made Shahed dronesaccording to Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov.

A drone struck a three-story building at an educational institution in the Saltivka district, partially destroying the top two floors of the building, as well as the roof. There was no one inside at the time.

Three other drone strikes hit the area of ​​a sports complex in Kharkiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district. A two-story building in the complex was partially damaged and a 63-year-old security guard was injured, according to Syniehubov.

Russian forces shelled the city of Kherson and attacked a medical center, according to regional governor Roman Mrochko, killing a doctor and wounding a nurse.

“A young and talented doctor was murdered, who was on his first day of work after his internship. It was his first working day, which ended without even starting,” Tetiana Karchevych, head of the Kherson region health department, said at the scene of the attack.

Ukraine’s presidential office reported Tuesday morning that at least 12 civilians had been killed in the country over the past 24 hours and 104 people were injured.

The office said Monday’s attack in Kryvyi Rih killed seven people, including a 10-year-old girl, making it one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in recent weeks. Russian rockets hit a high-rise residential building and a university building in the attack, which also injured 81 people, including seven children.

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Hanna Arhirova in kyiv, Ukraine, and Yuras Karmanau in Berlin contributed to this report.