Russia says ‘Ukraine’ drones hit two Moscow buildings; Vnukovo airport closed, flights redirected

Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport was closed to traffic early on Sunday, a Russian state news agency reported, after the city mayor said Ukrainian drones hit buildings in the capital.

“Two city office tower facades were insignificantly damaged,” the city’s mayor said in the post on Sunday. Nobody was injured. Moscow’s Vnukovo airport was closed with flights diverted to other airports, Tass reported.

Moscow and its environs, lying about 500 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, had been rarely targeted during the conflict in Ukraine until several drone attacks this year, reported news agency AFP.

The Sunday attack is the latest in a series of recent drone strikes, including on the Kremlin and Russian towns near the border with Ukraine, that Moscow has blamed on Kyiv.

“The capital’s Vnukovo airport is closed for departures and arrivals, flights are redirected to other airports,” TASS reported. “This was reported by the aviation services.”

Earlier this month, a volley of drone attacks briefly disrupted air traffic at the same airport, to the city’s southwest. Russia said it had downed five Ukrainian drones that night.

The attacks on Moscow come several weeks into a Ukrainian counter-offensive to claw back territory captured by Russia since large-scale hostilities erupted in February 2022.

Russia’s foreign ministry has said such attacks “would not be possible without the help provided to the Kyiv regime by the US and its NATO allies”.

On Friday Russia said it had intercepted two Ukrainian missiles over its southern Rostov region bordering Ukraine, with at least 16 people wounded by debris falling on the city of Taganrog.

Regions bordering Ukraine have seen regular drone strikes and shelling since Moscow launched its military campaign in February last year, but have hardly ever been targeted by missiles.

The ministry said the first S-200 missile was aimed at “residential infrastructure” of Taganrog, a city of around 250,000 people.

Shortly after, it said it downed a second S-200 missile near the city of Azov, with debris falling in an unpopulated area.

On the other side of the border, at least one civilian was killed in a Russian missile attack on the northeast Ukrainian city of Sumy, according to national police, who added that there were five injured.

“On the evening of July 29, an enemy missile hit an educational institution. Law enforcement officers are working at the scene, recording the effects,” the force posted on Telegram, putting the initial toll at “at least one civilian dead and five injured”.

According to public broadcaster Suspilne, the building was destroyed in an explosion at about 8:00 pm (1700 GMT).

In early July, a Russian drone attack hit an apartment building in the same city, killing three and wounding 21.

A Russian strike killed two people in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, authorities there said.