Russia blamed Ukraine for staging a drone attack at one of the skyscrapers in central Moscow early on Tuesday for the second time in two days, which highlighted the vulnerability of the Russian capital.
According to Russian officials, the attacks on the capital reflect the failures of the Ukrainian military's counteroffensive to reclaim territories that have been captured by Russia. On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the war "was gradually coming back to Russian territory".
The Russian Defense Ministry said that it shot down two drones outside Moscow and jammed another, which crashed into the skyscraper. No casualties were reported in the incident. The IQ-Quarter Tower I skyscraper houses multiple government agencies, including three federal ministries.
One of Zelenskyy's advisers tweeted that Moscow “is rapidly getting used to a full-fledged war,” without confirming Ukraine's involvement. It also dismissed certain claims that Russian civilian ships were targeted by Ukrainian drones.
In response to questions about Moscow's safety, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that "the threat exists and measures are being taken. Further, the Russian military said that two of its warships in the Black Sea were attacked by Ukrainian drones and were subsequently destroyed.
The drone attacks come after a Russian missile strike targeted Zelenskyy's hometown in Kryvyi Rih, which claimed the lives of seven people and wounded dozens of others.
Last week, Russian forces pounded a key village that Ukraine claimed to have recaptured in its grinding counteroffensive in the country's southeast, while Moscow accused Kyiv of firing a missile at a city in southern Russia that officials there said wounded 15 people.
Prior to that, at least eight people were killed in Russian attacks targeting 11 areas in Ukraine amid fierce clashes between both sides as Kyiv is charging ahead to remove Moscow's forces from the territories they have occupied, according to Ukrainian authorities.
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