Drones attacked buildings in Moscow and arms shop in Crimea

Get free updates from the war in Ukraine

we will send you one myFT Daily Digest Latest Email Rounding war in ukraine News every morning.

Russian officials said on Monday that two drones crashed into buildings in Moscow, while more than a dozen targeted Crimea, including one that targeted an arms stockpile on the annexed peninsula.

The strikes, carried out by Ukraine early Monday, came a day after Russia fired missiles at the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa, killing one person and severely damaging the city’s historic cathedral, officials said.

This is at least the fourth time drones have arrived in Moscow since early May, when two drones were shot down over the Kremlin late last night. Others have damaged buildings in suburban areas.

Ukraine usually does not claim responsibility for the attacks in Russian territory and Crimea, but a senior official strongly suggested that Kiev had carried out the attacks as part of its increased use of its “army of drones”.

On Monday, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed it successfully shot down both drones over Moscow using “electromagnetic warfare,” where experts disrupt the signals that lead the drones to their targets.

Video showed a glass crashed through the top floor of an office building on Likhacheva Avenue, causing significant damage to the structure, which appears to be under construction and not in use. State media reported that another hit a low-rise building on Komsomolsky Avenue, Moscow’s main thoroughfare, causing minor damage to the roof.

Both sites are located relatively close to the main headquarters of the Ministry of Defence. According to the Baja Telegram channel, which is close to Russian police forces, a man filming the building was detained early Monday.

“Drone strikes were reported on two non-residential buildings at around 4 am today. There were no serious damages or casualties,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on his official social media channel on Monday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “All drones have been disabled.”

A resident of an apartment block near the Komsomolsky Avenue drone crash site recorded a video from inside his apartment that showed the blast shattered the panes of his windows. Both roads were closed after the attacks.

Russia’s defense minister said 17 drones were launched over Crimea, which Moscow annexed and illegally annexed in 2014. The peninsula’s governor said a drone struck an arms shop in Dzhankoi in the north, and road and rail travel in the area was suspended. Settlements were evacuated within a radius of 5 km around the spot.

The ministry said that all drones targeting crimes were either shot down or suppressed using electromagnetic protection. It said eleven crashed in the Black Sea and three landed on the peninsula, while no casualties were reported.

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in a Telegram post: “Electronic warfare and air defense are the least capable of protecting the skies of the occupiers. Whatever happened there, will happen again.”

Fedorov’s comments highlight Ukraine’s strategy to neutralize Russia’s military threat from Crimea. Moscow has heavily militarized the Black Sea peninsula since 2014 and used it as a staging ground to support its full-scale offensive launched 18 months ago.

Reducing the threat from the south is key to helping Kiev conduct its counteroffensive more efficiently along its more than 1,000 km-long southern and eastern flanks, where Russia controls about 18 percent of Ukrainian territory.

Addressing the Aspen Security Forum this weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested more attacks could be carried out on the Crimean bridge, which was damaged for the second time last week following Russia’s invasion of what Kremlin officials claimed as a Ukrainian maritime drone strike.

“This is the road that is used to fill ammunition in war. And it militarises the Crimean peninsula,” Zelensky told the conference in Colorado, US. “It’s an enemy facility created outside of international law, so it makes sense, it serves a purpose.”

Ukrainian officials said Russia launched an overnight drone attack against the port of Reni on the Danube River, which marks the country’s border with Romania, a member of the NATO military alliance.

The silos were set on fire by the latest airstrike in a Russian campaign targeting ports near Odessa following Moscow’s exit from a UN-brokered deal to export Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said he “strongly condemns the recent Russian attacks against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure on the Danube”.

“This is a provocation against Ukraine and NATO, because the attack was actually carried out on the border with a NATO country,” a senior Ukrainian military official said on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the matter.

Additional reporting by Henri Foy in Brussels

Get free updates from the war in Ukraine

we will send you one myFT Daily Digest Latest Email Rounding war in ukraine News every morning.

Russian officials said on Monday that two drones crashed into buildings in Moscow, while more than a dozen targeted Crimea, including one that targeted an arms stockpile on the annexed peninsula.

The strikes, carried out by Ukraine early Monday, came a day after Russia fired missiles at the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa, killing one person and severely damaging the city’s historic cathedral, officials said.

This is at least the fourth time drones have arrived in Moscow since early May, when two drones were shot down over the Kremlin late last night. Others have damaged buildings in suburban areas.

Ukraine usually does not claim responsibility for the attacks in Russian territory and Crimea, but a senior official strongly suggested that Kiev had carried out the attacks as part of its increased use of its “army of drones”.

On Monday, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed it successfully shot down both drones over Moscow using “electromagnetic warfare,” where experts disrupt the signals that lead the drones to their targets.

Video showed a glass crashed through the top floor of an office building on Likhacheva Avenue, causing significant damage to the structure, which appears to be under construction and not in use. State media reported that another hit a low-rise building on Komsomolsky Avenue, Moscow’s main thoroughfare, causing minor damage to the roof.

Both sites are located relatively close to the main headquarters of the Ministry of Defence. According to the Baja Telegram channel, which is close to Russian police forces, a man filming the building was detained early Monday.

“Drone strikes were reported on two non-residential buildings at around 4 am today. There were no serious damages or casualties,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on his official social media channel on Monday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “All drones have been disabled.”

A resident of an apartment block near the Komsomolsky Avenue drone crash site recorded a video from inside his apartment that showed the blast shattered the panes of his windows. Both roads were closed after the attacks.

Russia’s defense minister said 17 drones were launched over Crimea, which Moscow annexed and illegally annexed in 2014. The peninsula’s governor said a drone struck an arms shop in Dzhankoi in the north, and road and rail travel in the area was suspended. Settlements were evacuated within a radius of 5 km around the spot.

The ministry said that all drones targeting crimes were either shot down or suppressed using electromagnetic protection. It said eleven crashed in the Black Sea and three landed on the peninsula, while no casualties were reported.

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in a Telegram post: “Electronic warfare and air defense are the least capable of protecting the skies of the occupiers. Whatever happened there, will happen again.”

Fedorov’s comments highlight Ukraine’s strategy to neutralize Russia’s military threat from Crimea. Moscow has heavily militarized the Black Sea peninsula since 2014 and used it as a staging ground to support its full-scale offensive launched 18 months ago.

Reducing the threat from the south is key to helping Kiev conduct its counteroffensive more efficiently along its more than 1,000 km-long southern and eastern flanks, where Russia controls about 18 percent of Ukrainian territory.

Addressing the Aspen Security Forum this weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested more attacks could be carried out on the Crimean bridge, which was damaged for the second time last week following Russia’s invasion of what Kremlin officials claimed as a Ukrainian maritime drone strike.

“This is the road that is used to fill ammunition in war. And it militarises the Crimean peninsula,” Zelensky told the conference in Colorado, US. “It’s an enemy facility created outside of international law, so it makes sense, it serves a purpose.”

Ukrainian officials said Russia launched an overnight drone attack against the port of Reni on the Danube River, which marks the country’s border with Romania, a member of the NATO military alliance.

The silos were set on fire by the latest airstrike in a Russian campaign targeting ports near Odessa following Moscow’s exit from a UN-brokered deal to export Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said he “strongly condemns the recent Russian attacks against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure on the Danube”.

“This is a provocation against Ukraine and NATO, because the attack was actually carried out on the border with a NATO country,” a senior Ukrainian military official said on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the matter.

Additional reporting by Henri Foy in Brussels