A swarm of drones yesterday hit Moscow in an unprecedented attack, while Russian drones struck Kyiv for a third straight day as Ukraine gears up for a major offensive against Russian forces.
The Russian Ministry of Defense blamed Kyiv for the attacks that saw three drones crash into residential buildings in Moscow.
Officials said no one was seriously injured and there was only “minor” damage to buildings.
Photo: AFP
The defense ministry said that eight drones were used in the attack, adding that five of them were downed and three disabled.
Of the three that hit residential buildings, two crashed into high-rises in Moscow’s affluent southwest, while a third damaged a residential building in a suburb of the capital.
The other drones fell outside Moscow. Some of the debris was found about 15km from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Novo-Ogaryovo residence.
One video shared on social media showed an explosion followed by a column of smoke rising into the sky.
Two drones were intercepted over the Kremlin earlier this month, but yesterday’s attack was the first time that uncrewed aerial vehicles hit residential areas of Moscow, hundreds of kilometers from the front lines in Ukraine.
The raids are likely to be seen as a psychological blow and a major embarrassment for the Kremlin, which has gone to great lengths to say the protracted conflict in Ukraine does not pose a threat to Russians.
The Kremlin insisted that there was no “threat” to Russians, adding that Putin was being informed of the attacks in “real time.”
Moscow also said it believed the attack was a “response” by Kyiv to a recent Russian hit in Ukraine.
“It is completely clear that we are talking about response acts by the Kyiv regime to very effective strikes on a command center [in Ukraine],” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, without clarifying where the Russian strike took place.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Kyiv had “no direct relation” to the Moscow attacks.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said two people had sought medical assistance after the raid, but “no-one has suffered serious injuries.”
The residents of buildings damaged in the strikes were briefly evacuated.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said that it yesterday downed 29 out of 31 drones, mainly over Kyiv and the Kyiv region in the latest Russian barrage — the third on the Ukrainian capital in 24 hours.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
RSS