The TASS news agency reported one drone crashed in Komsomolsky Prospekt, near the defense ministry, while another hit a business center on Likhacheva Street by one of Moscow's main ring roads. Pictures and video posted to social media showed the business center with some damage visible to the top of the tall building. One unverified video posted to social media appeared to show a drone flying freely above Moscow with no sign of air defenses trying to intercept it.
Halyna Pastushuk reports from Lviv:
The Russian capital was rocked by two explosions after a drone crashed in Komsomolsky Prospekt, near the defense ministry, while another hit a business center on Likhacheva Street near one of Moscow’s main ring roads.
Drone attacks such as the ones that struck Moscow in the early hours of Monday morning will “continue and increase in scale,” according to the Ukrainian military intelligence.
Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR), told the daily newspaper Kyiv Post the strikes exposed Moscow’s weak air defenses, something Ukraine intends to take advantage of. “The strikes on the key facilities of Russia’s security sector located in Moscow testify to the fact that the Putin regime is unable to fully control the sky even for the protection of the most important facilities,” he said. Referring to “cotton” – a Ukrainian word play used to signify explosions – in Moscow, he added: “Obviously, this situation will continue and increase in scale.”
Russia’s defense ministry commented: “A Kyiv regime attempt to carry out a terrorist act using two drones on objects on the territory of the city of Moscow was stopped. Two Ukrainian drones were suppressed and crashed. There are no casualties.”
In the early hours of Monday morning, drones also struck an ammunition dump in Russian-occupied Crimea. Moscow has an airbase at Dzhankoi which, according to Ukrainian military intelligence, is Russia’s largest in Crimea. “The enemy keeps reserves in the north of the occupied Crimea to strengthen its troop groups,” deputy chief of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Brig. Gen. Oleksiy Hromov said some time ago. “The city of Dzhankoi and the adjacent areas have actually turned into the largest military base in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, from where Russian occupation troops and weapons and military equipment of the Russian Armed Forces are redeployed.”
The attacks came a day after President Zelensky vowed to “retaliate” for Sunday’s Russian missile strike on the port city of Odesa.
"Missiles against peaceful cities, against residential buildings, a cathedral... There can be no excuse for Russian evil," he said.
"As always, this evil will lose. And there will definitely be a retaliation to Russian terrorists for Odesa. They will feel this retaliation."
Odesa has been bombed several times since the start of the invasion, and in January the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO designated the historic centre of the city as a World Heritage in Danger site. The city has come under repeated attack since Moscow pulled out of a grain export deal last week. Ukraine has accused Russia of targeting grain supplies and infrastructure vital to the Black Sea deal.
Moscow said on Sunday it hit all intended targets in Ukraine's port city Odesa, claiming the sites were being used to prepare "terrorist acts" against Russia.
Ukraine’s latest drone attack on Moscow has sent panic, fear and a desire for revenge rippling through Russian social media, with commentators more than a little rattled that Kyiv’s drones can apparently reach the capital unhindered.
Kyiv has said the attack was a "special operation" carried out by its forces.
On Russian social media, however, not everyone was convinced. Some were questioning the authenticity of videos of the attack and claiming it was a story totally made up by Russian media.
"These videos seem to be fake; no drones can be seen on them. Rich guys are just playing with the drones, that's it. The mass media has just exaggerated the case."
Another commentator 'Syomin Nick' supported the line about the attack being fake or being staged by Russian special services, writing: "Why did they target the non-residential building... and they [Russian authorities] said they 'prevented' the attack...
Elsewhere, others were more than happy to believe the attack was real and spell out just how they think Russia should respond. Apparently unaware of Moscow’s months-long missile and drone campaign against Ukrainian cities, one wrote: "It's high time we launched missiles on the important objects in Kyiv."
Another wrote: "What did they expect? For the Crimean Bridge, they retaliated by attacking Odesa. I hope that for Moscow's attack, they will retaliate by attacking Kyiv.”
Another took things a step further, explicitly calling for the targeting of residential buildings.
"We are waiting for the real retaliatory strikes on 20 non-residential objects in Kyiv.”
As usual, there was also plenty of speculation that NATO was involved in the attack on Moscow. Yet despite the bravado and calls for retaliation, there was also much outrage and shock that such an attack could not only happen but that they are now being taken and represented by Russian state media as something "normal."
Click on the audio player above to hear a report by Radio Poland’s Halyna Pastushuk.
