Live: Russia downs three Ukrainian drones over Moscow, defence ministry says

Issued on: 30/07/2023 – 07:32Modified: 30/07/2023 – 08:02

3 min

7:16am: Russia downs three Ukrainian drones over Moscow

Three Ukrainian drones were downed over Moscow early Sunday, Russia’s defence ministry said, in an attack that damaged two office towers and briefly shut an international airport.

While one of the drones was shot down on the city’s outskirts, two others were “suppressed by electronic warfare” and smashed into an office complex.

The defence ministry called it an “attempted terrorist attack”.

“On the morning of July 30, the Kyiv regime’s attempted terrorist attack with unmanned aerial vehicles on objects in the city of Moscow was thwarted,” it said on Telegram.

“One Ukrainian UAV was destroyed in the air by air defence systems over the territory of the Odintsovo district of Moscow region.

“Two more drones were suppressed by electronic warfare and, having lost control, crashed on the territory of Moscow-City’s non-residential building complex.”

Moscow-City is a commercial development in the west of the capital.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin posted on Telegram that there were “no victims or injured” in the attack.

7:00am: At least one person killed in Russian missile strike on Ukraine’s Sumy

At least one civilian was killed Saturday evening in a Russian missile attack on the northeast Ukrainian city of Sumy, said national police, adding that there were five injured in the strike on an education centre.

“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”.

“Police, rescue workers and medics are on the scene”, it added.

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

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

Key developments from Saturday, July 30:

A Russian air strike killed two people in the city of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine on Saturday, local authorities said.

“An enemy missile hit an open area. Unfortunately, a man and a woman were killed,” said city council official Anatoly Kurtev.

“The shock wave shattered the windows of a very tall building, and damaged an education centre and a supermarket,” he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Saturday visited what he said were “advanced positions” of Ukraine’s special forces near the eastern city of Bakhmut.

“The Bakhmut direction, advanced positions of the Special Operations Forces,” Zelensky said on messaging app Telegram, adding he arrived to congratulate Ukraine’s “warriors on their professional day, to honour their strength”.

Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)