Explosions rocked Moscow this morning after Russia attempted to stop a suspected kamikaze Ukrainian drone attack that almost hit a top Putin pundit.
The aerial assault strike wreaked havoc in the capital as flight travel was paralyzed only hours after Volodymyr Zelenksy vowed revenge following a deadly Russian missile strike.
Russia claimed to have foiled two attacks by Ukrainian drones this morning, which caused chaos at all of Moscow’s major airports and disruptions to hundreds of flights.
The reports stated that Russian air defences had jammed one of the drones in the Ruzsky district west of the capital and later destroyed another one in the Istrinsky district nearby.
At least two were injured when one of the downed drones fell on a house in the Istrinsky suburb, a regional governor said. The UAV reportedly exploded close to the sprawling mansion of the Russian propagandist and pro-war fanatic Margarita Simonyan.
The head of the RT state media empire – also known as Putin’s “iron Doll” – complained on Telegram that the drone was shot down “on the street next to us” in her wealthy Moscow suburb.
Pictures showed the trail of air defence missiles, while video captured the moment a drone exploded as it was struck by an air defence strike.
Moscow major airports – Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky – were closed for two hours as air space around the capital was shut under the “Carpet regime”, an emergency plan for incoming drones. One pilot told passengers: “All airports in Moscow are closed.”
At least four planes bound for Domodedovo were diverted as far as Kazan, some 500 miles to the east. It comes after Ukrainian president Zelensky promised retaliation for Saturday’s Russian missile strike on the city centre of Chernihiv that killed seven, including a 6-year-old girl.
He vowed that his soldiers would give a “notable response” to the “terrorist attack”, which claimed the life of little Sofia and other victims.
At least 15 children were also among the 148 wounded and at least 25 civilians had been treated in hospital after the strike that the UN deplored as “heinous”.
Drone air strikes deep inside Russia, and often targeted at the capital, have increased since two drones were destroyed over the Kremlin in early May.
As August began, two drone strikes hit government buildings in the heart of Moscow in a devastating blow to Putin. A week later, the capital was enveloped in further chaos as Ukrainian aerial assaults wreaked havoc above Moscow once again.
Only last week, another huge explosion lit up the capital’s skies after a drone blasted through a building only three miles from the Kremlin.
The attack trailed in the short wake of a Ukrainian naval kamikaze drone strike on Putin’s beloved £3billion bridge that connects annexed Crimea to Russia.
Over the weekend, a daring drone attack deep inside Russia destroyed one of Putin’s prized Tu-22 supersonic bombers at Soltsy airbase.
