Drones reportedly shot down over Kaluga and Tver regions, bordering the Moscow region, and one over the Istra district of Moscow region.
The ministry said early on Tuesday that air defence systems destroyed two drones over the Kaluga and Tver regions, which border the Moscow region. A third drone was shot down closer to the Russian capital, over the Istra district of the Moscow region, it added.
Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the “attack drones which targeted Moscow” were destroyed, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. Sobyanin said on the Telegram messaging app that there had been “no casualties”, according to initial information.
Debris from the downed drone in the Istra district damaged a household, he said, and drone debris in the Tver region fell in the Zavidovo village.
The Russian Air Defense Forces have destroyed unmanned aerial vehicles flying towards Moscow in the air over the Kaluga Region and over the Istra district in the Moscow Region, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin wrote on his Telegram channel:https://t.co/3wd6kFJWnv pic.twitter.com/gNRcrgKcSm
— TASS (@tassagency_en) September 5, 2023
According to Russia’s RIA state news agency, Zavidodvo is home to “Rus”, an official residence palace of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin’s main residences are the Novo-Ogaryovo residence in the Moscow region as well as the Grand Kremlin Palace – where official events are held.
Russian news agencies also reported on Tuesday that almost 50 flights were cancelled or postponed at the four major airports around the capital – Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky. Operations resumed later in the morning.
Drone attacks on Russian territory have become an almost daily occurrence in recent weeks and disrupted flights in and out of Moscow as well as caused damage to residential and commercial properties in the capital city and other regions of the country.
A huge wave of drones reportedly destroyed four Russian military heavy transport aircraft last week at an airfield in Russia’s western Pskov region, located roughly 660km (some 411 miles) north of the border with Ukraine.
Ukraine rarely takes direct responsibility for such attacks within Russian territory and areas of Ukraine annexed by Moscow.
But, last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared to hint that Ukraine’s forces were behind the attack on Pksov and that Kyiv had developed a new long-range weapon capable of attacking much deeper inside Russia.