Russia blames US for 'encouraging Ukrainian drone strikes', as Washington and Kyiv deny involvement in Moscow attacks

31 May 2023, 06:58 | Updated: 31 May 2023, 07:05

Russia has claimed that the US is encouraging Ukraine to attack its territory, although Kyiv denies being directly involved in Tuesday's drone strikes on Moscow.

Moscow was hit by a wave of kamikaze drones on Tuesday morning, with a string of small explosions heard across the Russian capital.

The attacks, which hit buildings at 6:24am local time, could be heard across the city, rattling the windows of buildings miles away from the scene.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said Ukraine had chosen the path of attempting "to intimidate Russia, Russian citizens and attacks on residential buildings", and that it was "clearly a sign of terrorist activity".

The US has said it does not support attacks in Russia and is still trying to collect information on what had taken place.

Anatoly Antonov, Russia's ambassador to the US, said: "What are these attempts to hide behind the phrase that they are ‘gathering information’?

"This is an encouragement for Ukrainian terrorists," he claimed on Telegram.

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Putin said air defences around the capital would be strengthened after the attacks.

A Ukrainian presidential aide denied that Kyiv was directly involved in the strikes.

"Of course we are pleased to watch and predict an increase in the number of attacks," presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said, "But of course we have nothing directly to do with this."

The explosions came just hours after Russia unleashed a series of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) attacks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, for the third night running.

In a statement, Moscow's Mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said there had been minor damage to a number of buildings, however, no serious injuries have been reported following the attack.

Sobyanin went on to call the damaged caused by the attacks "insignificant", with the city's air defences shooting down several drones.

According to Reuters, the ministry said: "This morning, the Kyiv regime launched a terrorist drone attack on targets in the city of Moscow."

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"Three of them were suppressed by electronic warfare, lost control and deviated from their intended targets.

"Another five drones were shot down by the Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile system in the Moscow region."

Striking blocks of flats in Leninisky Prospekt and Profsoyuznaya Street near Moscow's city centre, initial reports suggested two people had been injured, according to Sobyanin.

One individual was hospitalised, with the residents in two apartment blocks evacuated as a precaution.

The buildings, in a wealthy district of Rublyovka, were damaged, with the area cordoned off as a crime scene by local police as objects were taken away for analysis.

The explosions follow 17 days of sustained attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, with officials noting around 20 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia had been destroyed by the city's air defence systems overnight.

The latest attack comes after the "most massive attack" on the city occurred overnight into Sunday with Iranian-made Shahed drones, according to senior Kyiv military official Serhii Popko.

The attacks were part of a new wave of increasingly frequent and intense air strikes launched by Moscow this month as Kyiv prepares to launch a counteroffensive to try to take back territory occupied by Russian forces.