Russia accused the United States and its allies of helping Ukraine launch a drone attack on Tuesday targeting Moscow and surrounding areas, temporarily disrupting air traffic at a major international airport.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the five drones that targeted the Russian capital region did not cause any injuries or damage, as the air defenses shot down four planes, while the other lost control and crashed. TASS news agency. The ministry claimed that such an attack would not have been possible for Ukraine without Western support.
“All this makes Washington and its followers complicit in preparing and carrying out terrorist attacks that are being prepared and carried out with Western money and Western weapons,” TASS quoted the ministry as saying.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin He said that flights to Vnukovo International Airport, one of Moscow’s three airports, were diverted for “security reasons” before restrictions were lifted at 8 a.m.
And Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of terrorism with what she described as “an attempt by the Kiev regime to attack an area where there is civilian infrastructure, including an airport that receives international flights.”
This was a day after Russian drone strikes on a residential building killed three Ukrainians and wounded 19 others in the northeastern city of Sumy.
TOPSHOT – This photo shows a five-storey residential building that was partially destroyed after drone strikes killed two and injured 19 in the city of Sumy, eastern Ukraine, on July 3, 2023, the regional administration said.
Ukraine has not acknowledged involvement in Tuesday’s drone attack, but such tactics are seen as a way to bring fear of war to Russian citizens, whose government refers to the brutal 16-month-old standoff as a “special military operation”.
In May, Russian authorities said they had intercepted at least eight drones in and around Moscow, with debris injuring two people and damaging three buildings. Weeks ago, videos online showed two drones shot down as they approached the Kremlin buildings. Russia blamed the accidents on Ukraine, which denied responsibility.
Developments:
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who has led the military alliance since 2014, has been granted a one-year contract extension ahead of next week’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where support for Ukraine will be a major theme.
Admiral Rob Bauer—the chair of NATO’s Military Committee—said that Ukraine would not receive the F-16s in time for use during the current counteroffensive, stating that it would take months to complete the required training, technical support, and logistics for the Ukrainians to fly them.
∎ A Russian missile strike injured 43 people, including 12 children, in the northeastern province of Kharkiv, says the region’s governor, Oleh Sinyhopov.
Both sides say the other is planning around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant
On the day that marks 16 months since Russia took control of the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the invading forces were planning “serious provocations” regarding the facility.
Citing military intelligence, Zelensky said in his nightly video address that “Russian forces placed explosive-like objects on the roof of several power units at (the facility), possibly to simulate an attack on the station. They may have another scenario.” “
Both sides have often accused the other of creating dangerous situations around Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, and Tuesday was no exception. Rinat Karcha, an advisor to the president of the company that operates Russia’s nuclear network, went so far as to specify a Ukrainian attack would take place on Wednesday evening.
Karcha told Russia 24 TV channel that Ukraine would use “high-precision long-range weapons and kamikaze drones”. According to TASS. They plan to air-drop bombs stuffed with radioactive waste that have been removed from the nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine to a military airfield in Ukraine. ”
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