After a drone strike on the Russian capital of Moscow, Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, issued a warning that war was returning to Russia.
Attacks on Russian soil, according to Mr. Zelensky, are an “inevitable, natural, and absolutely fair process” of the conflict between the two countries.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, two of the downed Ukrainian drones on Sunday crashed into buildings.
The southwest of the city center located Vnukovo Airport was also momentarily closed.
The most recent incident Moscow has attributed to Kiev is the early-Sunday drone attack.
And on Sunday, Mr. Zelensky declared that Ukraine was becoming stronger in a video message from the city of Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine.
The so-called “Special Military Operation,” which the Russian leadership anticipated would last a few weeks, is already in its 522nd day, he noted.
“The war is gradually returning to Russian territory, to its symbolic hubs and military outposts, and this is an inevitable, natural, and entirely just process.”
This portrayal is undoubtedly an improvement over Kyiv’s customary stance of refusing to accept responsibility for assaults inside Russia.
President Zelensky may be far from making a confession, but it is obvious that he feels secure enough to apply pressure on everyone, not just the Kremlin.
He can also address the Russian populace, the majority of whom seem to think Moscow’s invasion is noble and righteous, through drone attacks like these.
As suggested by Mr. Zelensky, if they link local explosives to what’s happening in Ukraine, it will be more difficult for Vladimir Putin to defend his invasion, which he only intends to escalate.
The drone strike, according to authorities, caused no injuries, but the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, reported that the façade of two office buildings was slightly harmed.
Several windows at the corner of the buildings have been damaged, as seen in photos from the site, and there is debris on the ground below.
One witness, identified only by her first name Liya, told Reuters that she could see smoke and fire.
“We heard an explosion, and it was like a wave, everyone jumped,” she recalled.
“Then there was a lot of smoke, and everything was obscured. You could see the fire from above.”
Southwest of the city center, at Vnukovo Airport, flights were temporarily halted, and inbound aircraft were diverted to neighboring airports.
The defense ministry declared that the “attempted terrorist attack” had been “thwarted” in a statement.
Since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow, which is located roughly 500 kilometers (310 miles) from the Ukrainian border, has only occasionally been targeted.
However, Russia has charged Ukraine with conducting a number of drone attacks on its territory recently, including four on the capital.
The most prominent occurred in May when Russia alleged that Ukraine had attacked the Kremlin, the city’s center, with two drones. President Vladimir Putin was not the object of an attack on the Kremlin by Ukraine.
Russia’s defense ministry claims that Ukraine also launched a drone attack on Crimea overnight. Crimea is a region that Russia acquired in 2014. According to officials, 16 drones were destroyed, and nine more were suppressed, according to Tass news agency.
In the meantime, according to Ukrainian authorities, a Russian missile attack on the city of Sumy in the nation’s northeast resulted in one fatality and five injuries.
According to state radio Suspilne, an explosion that occurred at around 20:00 local time (17:00 GMT) demolished a building.
Additionally, according to authorities, two fatalities occurred on Saturday in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.
