The Kremlin said Monday it was stepping up Russia's air defenses following a new wave of drone attacks inside the country and after Ukraine’s leader warned the war was “returning” home.
“Given the evolving situation, additional measures have been taken to improve defenses against air and sea-based attacks,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told a military conference Monday.
His announcement came after the latest in a series of attempted drone assaults that Moscow has accused Kyiv of carrying out to compensate for a struggling counteroffensive on the battlefield. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials accused Russia of a deadly new attack on civilians in the heart of the country.
Russian officials said three Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow were shot down early Sunday, hours before a major military parade attended by President Vladimir Putin.
Images from a crash site in the capital showed the façade of a skyscraper damaged on one floor, with glass shattered and structural beams snapped and deformed.
Kyiv has stopped short of taking responsibility for the drone attacks, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested Sunday this could mark a new chapter.
“Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia — to its symbolic centers and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process,” Zelenskyy said Sunday in his nightly video address.
The Moscow attack, which injured at least one person and resulted in the closure of the city's airspace, followed a dramatic aerial assault on the Russian capital earlier this summer.
Since then a series of drone assaults have targeted strategic sites across the country, increasingly bringing home the reality of the war to the Russian public.
Last week, a drone fell in the center of the capital near the defense ministry headquarters, while another gutted a few upper floors of another building.
“There is always something flying in Russia, including in Moscow,” Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said Sunday on Ukrainian national television. “No matter how hard the Russian authorities want to turn a blind eye to this and say they have shot everything down, something is still arriving.”
The Kremlin has largely played down the threat, seeking to paint the assaults as a sign of desperation in Kyiv. Ukraine's long-awaited counteroffensive has so far struggled to achieve a breakthrough, with Russia's defensive lines largely holding firm.
“The attack shows the terrorist nature of the Kyiv regime,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a call with reporters Monday. “The counteroffensive is not going as planned, so Ukraine is opting for targeting civilian infrastructure. It’s disgusting,” he said.
Russia hit back Monday with a missile assault on civilian buildings in central Ukraine, killing at least five including a young child and leaving others likely trapped under the rubble, Zelenskyy said.
The attacks hit sites including a university and a residential building in Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy's hometown, officials said.
While Russia has denied targeting civilian infrastructure, aerial bombardments for months have targeted almost everything from hospitals to playgrounds to apartment blocks.
“In recent days, the enemy has been stubbornly attacking cities, city centers, shelling civilian objects and housing,” Zelenskyy said Monday in a telegram post.
