Ukrainian drones again targeted the Moscow region early on Monday, Russian officials said. Two drones briefly suspended flights at two airports in the capital, amid an intensifying campaign apparently aimed at bringing the war home to Russia.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said in statements on the Telegram messaging app that air defenses intercepted one drone just before 7 a.m. local time and another shortly after 8 a.m. The attacks resulted in no damage or casualties, the mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin, said in a statement. But the regional governor, Andrey Vorobyov, said later that two people were injured when falling debris from a drone hit a cottage, Tass reported.
The incidents prompted the Vnukovo and Domodedovo Airports to restrict airspace for about two hours, forcing nearly 50 flights to redirect, the Russian state news agency Tass reported. It said that as of 9 a.m. local time all airports were operating “as usual.”
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine’s military, and the claims could not be independently verified. But Ukraine has been increasingly targeting places far from the front lines, reaching deep into Russian territory.
Russia’s defense ministry has reported that about two dozen drones have targeted Moscow and the surrounding region since the beginning of July. On Friday, Russian officials said that a Ukrainian drone hit Moscow’s financial center and damaged a building. A few weeks ago, another building in Moscow was hit twice by drones in 48 hours.
Ukraine’s drone attacks within Russia have caused relatively minor damage and few casualties, especially in comparison with Moscow’s deadly missile strikes and drone attacks in Ukraine. But they demonstrate Kyiv’s ability to strike hundreds of miles behind enemy lines.
The attacks have also forced ordinary Russians to think about the war and, potentially, their own vulnerability — fracturing the air of normalcy that President Vladimir V. Putin has tried to preserve.
