Russia accused the U.S. and its allies of helping Ukraine launch a drone attack Tuesday aimed at Moscow and its surroundings, temporarily disrupting air traffic at a major international airport.
None of the five drones targeting the Russian capital region caused injuries or damage, as four were shot down by air defenses and the other one lost control and crashed, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said, according to the state-owned TASS news agency. The ministry claimed such an assault would not have been feasible for Ukraine without Western support.
“All this makes Washington and its satellites complicit in preparing and carrying out terror attacks that are being prepared and carried out on Western money and with Western weapons,” the ministry said, as quoted by TASS.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said flights to Vnukovo International, one of Moscow’s three airports, were diverted “for security reasons” before restrictions were lifted at 8 a.m.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of terrorism with what she called “an attempt by the Kyiv regime to attack a zone where civil infrastructure is located, including an airport that receives international flights.”
That was a day after Russian drone strikes on a residential building killed three Ukrainians and injured 19 in the northeastern city of Sumy.
TOPSHOT – This photograph shows a five-storey residential building partially destroyed after drones attacks killed two and wounded 19 in eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy on July 3, 2023, the regional administration said.
Ukraine has not acknowledged involvement in Tuesday’s drone offensive, but such tactics are considered a way to bring fear of the war to Russian citizens, whose government refers to the brutal 16-month-old confrontation as a “special military operation.”
In May, Russian authorities said they intercepted at least eight drones in and around Moscow, and their debris caused injuries to two people and damage to three buildings. Weeks before, online videos showed two drones being shot down as they approached Kremlin buildings. Russia blamed the incidents on Ukraine, which denied responsibility.
Developments:
∎ NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who has led the military alliance since 2014, received a one-year contract extension ahead of next week’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where support for Ukraine will be a major topic.
∎ Ukraine won’t receive F-16 jets in time to use them during the current counteroffensive, said Adm. Rob Bauer − chair of NATO’s Military Committee − pointing out it will take months to complete the training, technical support and logistics required for the Ukrainians to fly them.
∎ A Russian missile strike injured 43 people, including 12 children, in the northeastern Kharkiv province, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
Both sides say the other is plotting around Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
On the day marking 16 months since Russia took control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the invading forces are plotting “dangerous provocations” involving the facility.
Citing military intelligence, Zelenskyy said on his nightly video address that “Russian troops have placed objects resembling explosives on the roof of several power units of the (facility), perhaps to simulate an attack on the plant. Perhaps they have some other scenario.”
Both sides have frequently accused the other of creating dangerous situations around the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, and Tuesday was no exception. Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the head of the company that operates Russia’s nuclear network, went as far as specifying an Ukrainian attack would happen Wednesday night.
Ukraine will use “high-precision long-range weapons and kamikaze drones,” Karchaa told the Rossiya-24 television channel, according to TASS. “They plan to airdrop bombs stuffed with radioactive waste that were removed from the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant to a military airfield in Ukraine.”
