The Russian news agency TASS quoted officials as saying that Ukrainian drones attacked the Russian capital, Moscow, in the early hours of Sunday morning, injuring one person and damaging several others from the terminals and suspension of flights at Vnukovo Airport.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that a Ukrainian drone crashed in the air over the Odintsovo region, while two other planes crashed in Moscow.
The Russian emergency services as saying that one person was injured as a result of an explosion in a building.
The agency said that the airport was closed to arrivals and departures.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said earlier that minor damage was caused to the facade of two administrative buildings, but that there were no injuries.
The Ukrainian government didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The attack, which was launched on Sunday, is the latest in a series of attacks by drones, including an attack on the Kremlin and Russian cities near the border with Ukraine, which Moscow attributes to Kiev.
In July, Russia said it had shot down five Ukrainian drones that disrupted air traffic at Vnukovo Airport.
These attacks come a few weeks after the launch of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, which aims to recover the territories occupied by Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that these attacks would have been impossible without the assistance provided to the Kiev regime by the United States and its allies in NATO.
On the Ukrainian side, at least one civilian was killed on Saturday evening in a Russian missile attack on the city of Sumy (northeast), according to the National Police, also speaking of five wounded as a result of the attack that targeted an educational center.
One of the buildings of the educational facility was destroyed by the explosion, which occurred around 20:00 (17:00 GMT).
In early July, a Russian drone attack targeted a residential building in Sumy, killing three and wounding 21.
In addition, Ukraine said that it had succeeded in attacking a land bridge to the Crimea peninsula, which was annexed by Russia, and also made progress near the town of Bakhmut in the besieged east.
The Chonhar Bridge, which connects Crimea to the Kherson region on the mainland, was attacked and damaged on Saturday morning, according to the Ukrainian military’s Strategic Communications Department.
The Chonhar Bridge, a major supply route for the Russian army, was already attacked and damaged by Ukrainian forces in June.
Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Hanna Maliar, said on Telegram that the Ukrainian army was advancing gradually but steadily in the south towards the cities of Melitopol and Berdyansk.
Referring to the fierce fighting on the front in the eastern Donetsk region, she said, “Today we have advanced further on the southern flank around Bakhmut”.
Russian forces captured Bakhmut a few months ago after intense fighting that resulted in heavy losses, and Ukraine is now seeking to regain the occupied territories through a counter-attack.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that he had visited the front line near Bakhmut on the occasion of Special Operations Forces Day.
He said on his Telegram channel that he thanked the soldiers there for their loyalty.
He posted a video showing him shaking hands with many fighters and giving them prizes.
Zelensky wrote that the commanders also informed him of the situation in the hotly contested sector of the front.
However, Zelensky didn’t provide any details until now.
“I thanked the guys for their strength, heroism, professionalism and very professional defense of Ukraine,” he said in his most recent video speech, recorded this time in Donetsk.
The Russian forces invaded Bakhmut a few months ago after heavy fighting.
Since then, the city, which was inhabited by about 70,000 people, was occupied before the comprehensive Russian invasion in February 2022.
On the course of the Ukrainian counterattack, the Ukrainian army wants to liberate the occupied territories.
It has recently reported a few successes, particularly in the southeast.
Later, Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that Ukraine had made progress.
“No, there are no major changes, of course, the enemy has been stopped and pushed back everywhere,” Putin told reporters in St. Petersburg on Saturday night.
Meanwhile, the British Ministry of Defense reported that fighting in southern Ukraine had intensified in two sectors over the past 48 hours.
“In southern Orekhov, fighting is concentrated near the village of Robotyn, in the area of responsibility of Russia’s 58th Combined Arms Army,” the Ministry of Defense in London said in its daily Twitter update on Saturday.
It added that 80 kilometers to the east, Ukrainian forces managed to defeat the Russian airborne forces and retake the village of Stromayorsky.
