Drone Attack Hits Building Close To Kremlin in Moscow
A Ukrainian military drone crashed into a Moscow city building after it was shot down by air defence systems in the latest attack on the Russian capital by unmanned aerial vehicles.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that air defence systems had shot down a drone early on Friday morning and debris had fallen on buildings in the city’s Expo Center complex.
Also, the Expo Center – a large event space used for major exhibitions and conferences – is located less than 5km (3.1 miles) from the Kremlin.
However, a video published by Russian media outlets showed thick smoke rising next to skyscrapers in the city.
The Russian defence ministry said that Ukraine launched the drone attack at about 4am local time (01:00 GMT) “using an unmanned aerial vehicle against objects located in Moscow and the Moscow region”.
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“The UAV, after being exposed to air defence weapons, changed its flight path and fell on a nonresidential building in the Krasnopresnenskaya embankment area of Moscow,” the ministry said on Telegram.
Meanwhile, moscow’s mayor said emergency services were on the scene, but that early reports indicated there were no casualties.
The wreckage of the UAV fell in the area of the Expo Center, and did not cause significant damage to the building,” Sobyanin said on Telegram.
However, State-run news agency TASS reported that one of the walls of the Expo Center’s pavilion had partially collapsed, citing emergency services.
“The area of the collapse is about 30 square metres [323sq feet],” emergency services told TASS.
The Expo Centre, on the Krasnopresnenskaya embankment of the Moskva River, hosts regular exhibitions and trade shows, according to its website. The venue is 100 metres (328 feet) from Moscow-City, an office block in the capital’s main business district that was struck twice within days by debris from downed drone strikes this month.
