One of the combat drones that Ukraine launches more and more frequently against Russian territory, but which it does not usually report, reached the capital of the country again on Wednesday. Killed by anti-aircraft defenses, the fall of its remains caused damage in the financial district of Moscow. Greater was the effect of a drone attack on the Belgorod region, which caused three deaths.
Three drones took part in the sixth consecutive day of attacks on the Russian capital. One was shot down near the city of Mozhaisk, 90 kilometers west of Moscow. Another in the surroundings of Jimki, a satellite city of the capital.
Only the third entered the big city. But according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, he was intercepted with electronic warfare means, lost control and crashed into a building under construction in the neighborhood known as Moscow-City, five kilometers from the Kremlin. The Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, assured that “according to preliminary data, it has not caused any victims.”
The emergency services informed the Tass agency that the Neva-Tower building suffered minor damage. Sobyanin added that windows were broken in two adjacent five-story blocks. Several videos and photos released later show one of the towers in the financial district of Moscow damaged.
It is not the first time that these Ukrainian combat devices have managed to reach the skyscrapers of Moscow. On July 30 and August 1, they already managed to hit towers in Moscow-City, in an area where the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce are located.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Russia on July 30: “War is gradually returning to Russian territory, to its symbolic centers and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely just process.”
This is a reality for the inhabitants of Moscow since last May Russia denounced that two drones had tried to attack the Kremlin itself. The capital’s anti-aircraft defenses are avoiding direct hits by drones, and the damage is mainly caused by falling debris from downed aircraft.
The damage is greater in the regions closest to the border with Ukraine, which are more exposed due to this proximity to attacks from Ukrainian territory.
Viacheslav Gladkov, governor of one of them, the Belgorod Oblast, announced on Wednesday the death of three civilians in this region after a drone attack.
Gladkov claimed that the attack took place on the territory of a sanatorium in the town of Lavri, in the Valuiski district.
“The Ukrainian armed forces launched an explosive device from a drone when people were on the street,” he denounced on Telegram. “Two men died on the spot from their injuries. The doctors were fighting for the life of the other until the last moment, but the injuries he received were incompatible with life,” he added.
Both Belgorod and other Russian border regions to Ukraine have been the most affected by Ukrainian attacks since shortly after February 2022, when Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to intervene militarily in his neighboring country in what he called a “special military operation”.
According to the RBK newspaper, the Valuiski district has been under shelling since this weekend. On August 20, the defenses of the regional capital, which is also called Belgorod, shot down three approaching drones. That same day, in the village of Logachovka, drones dropped five bombs. On the 21st another was registered in the town of Butirki. In no case were there injuries.
