Downed Ukrainian drone damages building in Moscow in latest attack
Russia has downed a Ukrainian drone in Moscow, causing it to fall and damage a "non-residential" building in the Russian capital.
According to Russian officials, the country's air defence forces downed the drone over Moscow on Friday, with Russia's defence ministry stating Ukraine had used a drone against "objects located in Moscow and the Moscow region".
On Telegram, Russia's Ministry of Defence said the UAV "changed its flight path and fell on a non-residential building in the Krasnopresnenskaya embankment area of Moscow" after it encountered air defence weapons.
Moscow's mayor said emergency services were on hand, but there were reportedly no casualties.
Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram the wreckage of the drone "fell in the area of the Expo Center, and did not cause significant damage to the building".
"The area of the collapse is about 30 sq m (323 sq ft)," emergency services told TASS – a Russian state-run news agency.
TASS also reported one of the walls of the centre had partially collapsed, citing emergency services as their source.
"The area of the collapse is about 30 square meters (323 square feet)," emergency services told TASS. They also reported the airspace near Vnukovo, an international airport, had been closed.
Until recently, Moscow and the surrounding areas had not been targeted by Kyiv as a result of the conflict in Ukraine. Ukraine, however, has now started to target the city with unmanned aerial vehicles.
Earlier this month, an expert told Forces News a series of drone strikes on Moscow "weakens" President Vladimir Putin's image in Russia, leading to nationalists questioning his pursuit in Ukraine.
Professor Michael Clarke, a former head of the defence think tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told the Sitrep podcast it shows that "Russia cannot be adequately defended, even from a... country like Ukraine, is the way that many people interpret it".
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