Workers clean a part of a damaged skyscraper in the "Moscow City" business district after a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia on Aug. 23.The Associated Press
Russia on Saturday reported a new drone attack on Moscow overnight, which again forced the temporary closure of three major airports serving the capital, and another in a southern region bordering Ukraine.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that a drone was brought down by air defence systems over the Istra district of the Moscow region. The district is some 50 km west of the Kremlin.
Moscow’s Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports suspended flights for couple of hours, TASS news agency said.
In the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said air defences shot down a drone near the village of Kupino, with no reported damage or casualties.
But he said four people were wounded by Ukrainian shelling of another village, Urazovo. He posted photos showing damage to buildings, one with its roof smashed in.
Ukraine did not immediately comment and almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia, which invaded it just over 18 months ago.
Cross-border shelling and drone attacks in southern Russia have been a frequent occurrence for many months, but drones aimed at Moscow are a more recent phenomenon.
Two were fired at the Kremlin in early May. Since then, a business district of the capital has been hit several times and other parts of the city and wider region have also been targeted.
While they have not caused deaths or serious damage in the capital, they have brought the war closer to home for Muscovites, undermining the Kremlin narrative that its “special military operation” in Ukraine is proceeding according to plan.