Drone attacks hit Moscow and anger the Kremlin | News of the war between Russia and Ukraine

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Two people were wounded in a rare attack on Moscow as heavy Russian raids hit Kiev, killing at least one person.

Russia said drones bombed Moscow on Tuesday but were neutralized in what one politician described as the worst attack on the capital since World War Two, while Kiev was also hit by aerial bombardment for the third time in 24 hours.

Since Russia sent troops to its neighbor in February last year, the war has been fought largely inside Ukraine, though Moscow has reported some attacks on its soil and blamed them on Ukraine, including an alleged assassination attempt against President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said two people were injured, but not seriously, while some residents were briefly evacuated in two apartment buildings that sustained minor damage.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said eight drones sent by Kiev were shot down or diverted, although Baza, a Telegram channel with links to the security services, said more than 25 were involved.

Residents in southwest Moscow said they heard a loud bang, followed by the smell of petrol, at around 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. local time. [02:00 to 03:00 GMT]. Some filmed a drone being shot down and a plume of smoke rising over the Moscow skyline.

MP Maxim Ivanov called the attack the most serious attack on Moscow since the Nazis, saying no citizen could now avoid the “new reality”.

He said: “Either you will defeat the enemy with one fist with our Fatherland, or the indelible shame of cowardice, cooperation and betrayal will swallow your family.”

Two weeks ago, two drones exploded over the Kremlin in an attack that Russia blamed on Kiev and said was aimed at Putin.

Ukraine’s presidential aide Mykhailo Podolak denied that Kiev was directly involved in targeting Moscow on Tuesday, though he said “we are happy to observe” and expected more to come.

The Russian Defense Ministry described the attack as a “terrorist drone attack” by the “Kiev regime”.

Investigators gather evidence while working outside a destroyed multi-storey apartment building following a drone attack in Moscow, Russia, on May 30, 2023. [Maxim Shemetov/Reuters]In Kiev, Ukraine’s defense forces said they shot down more than 20 Iranian-made Shahed drones on Tuesday.

Ukrainian officials said one person was killed — a woman reportedly aged 30, and four were injured when debris from a devastating Russian shell hit a high-rise apartment building, causing a fire. Two upper floors were destroyed, with people possibly still under the rubble.

Pictures of Kiev officials showed flames engulfing the upper part of the building.

“The attack was massive, it came from different directions, and in several waves,” said Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kiev military department.

Russia attacked Kiev 17 times in May with drones or missiles, mostly at night, in an apparent attempt to undermine Ukrainians’ will to fight after more than 15 months of war.

Reporting from Kiev, Al Jazeera’s Natasha Butler said: “Where I am now is a bombed-out apartment building, the top two floors almost destroyed.

“At the bottom of this apartment block there is a cleanup operation. People are examining their damaged cars, trying to make sense of what happened. They are looking up the building, the windows are almost broken. Lots of [residents] They will have to leave this building with their bags and pets. Some of them say they don’t want to leave, they are glad they survived.

“This is people’s worst nightmare here in Kyiv. These attacks are going on night after night now. This is the third attack in a row now. People are not sleeping. But every night, when they go to sleep, they hear those sirens, they hear explosions and they don’t know what’s going to happen.” .

In Moscow, said journalist Yulia Shapovalova, there is a sense of “calm” in the capital despite the attacks.

Moscow is bustling as usual now. People are going to work, public transport is running normally, nothing seems to be happening.

“People on the street are very calm, but I must tell you that many people in Russia sincerely believe that the information they hear regularly on television, that conflicts between Russia and Ukraine were inevitable and that this president [Vladimir] Putin, as a great strategist, first started it on foreign soil.

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