kraine’s president warned the war is“returning” to Russia after Moscow was hit by a drone attack.
Russia’s airspace was briefly closed after it brought down what it claimed was three Ukrainian drones in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Nobody was hurt in the incident and Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there was only minor damage to the facade of two office buildings in the Moskva-Citi business district which is several miles from the Kremlin.
Kyiv typically does not claim responsibility for specific incidents on Russian territory, and did not claim the latest attack, though President Volodymyr Zelensky said the war was “gradually returning to Russia’s territory – to its symbolic centres”.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky gives a press conference during the NATO Summit in Vilnius
/ AFP via Getty ImagesIn his daily address to the Ukrainian nation, he said the attack on Moscow was “an inevitable, natural, and absolutely fair process”.
While damage was minimal and the drones were brought down by what the Russians described as radio-electronic equipment, the attacks on the capital are deeply embarrassing for President Putin’s government who have told the public Russia is in full control of what they call its “special military operation” against Ukraine.
The damaged facade of an office building in the Moscow City following a reported Ukrainian drone attack
/ REUTERSAir defences had shot down one more in the air over the Odintsovo area in the Moscow region, it said.
“On the morning of 30th July, an attempted terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime using unmanned aerial vehicles against targets in the city of Moscow was foiled,” the ministry said in its statement.
Video apparently filmed by a passer-by which surfaced on social media showed flames shooting into the air near buildings after what sounded like an explosion.
“My friends and I rented an apartment to come here and unwind, and at some point, we heard an explosion and it was like a wave, everyone jumped,” a young woman, Liya, told the Reuters news agency.
“And then there was a lot of smoke and you couldn’t see anything. From above, you could see fire.”
A man takes a picture with his mobile phone of crane workers dismantling debris from a damaged skyscraper in the “Moscow City” business district after a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russi
/ APSome glass panels in one high-rise building were blown out and glass and debris littered part of the pavement below.
The incident followed what Russia said was a similar Ukrainian attempt to attack Moscow with two drones in the early hours of Monday and two drones reached the Kremlin in May in the most high-profile incident of its kind.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said after Monday’s attempted attack there would be more drone strikes.
They come as Ukraine announced it will start consultations with the United States this week on providing security guarantees for Kyiv pending the completion of the process of joining NATO.
The talks, announced by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, are a follow-up on pledges issued by the G7 group of advanced countries after this month’s NATO summit in Lithuania to draw up and honour security guarantees.
“We are starting talks with the United States (this) week,” Andriy Yermak wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“Security guarantees for Ukraine will be concrete, long-term obligations ensuring Ukraine’s capacity to defeat and restrain Russian aggression in the future. These will be clearly drafted formats and mechanisms of support.”
Yermak said the guarantees “will be in effect until Ukraine secures NATO membership.”
The Western Alliance’s Vilnius summit offered support to Ukraine in countering Russia’s 17-month-old invasion and individual countries pledged new weapons, but no date for Ukrainian membership was set as long as the war continues.
Members of the G7 agreed for each nation to negotiate agreements to provide security guarantees and help Ukraine bolster its military.
