Drone ‘intercepted south of Moscow’

MOSCOW: Russian anti-aircraft units intercepted a drone south of Moscow and there were no injuries or damage from falling debris, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said yesterday.

Mr Sobyanin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the drone, headed for Moscow, was downed in the Podolsk district just south of the capital. Emergency crews and specialists were on the scene.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Telegram that a total of five Ukraine-launched drones had also been destroyed overnight over the Moscow and the Bryansk and Belgorod regions bordering Ukraine.

The governor of Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, said there was no damage or injuries as a result of the attack.

Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on oil processing facilities in different regions of Russia this year, disrupting 15% of Russia’s oil refining capacity, according to an estimate by a Nato official at the beginning of April.

One such strike on Thursday hit a major oil processing plant in Bashkortostan region some 1,500 kilometres away, a Kyiv intelligence source said, the longest-range such attack since the start of the war in February 2022. Drone attacks targeting Moscow are rarer occurrences.

Moscow and Kyiv deny targeting civilians in their attacks, but each says the other’s military, transport and energy infrastructure are legitimate targets to weaken the opponent in their war efforts.