Sixth Consecutive Drone Attack on Moscow, Casualties in Belgorod and Lyman, Shelling of Odesa

Russian air defenses have shot down 3 Ukrainian drones in the vicinity of Moscow - the Russian capital has been attacked for the 6th day in a row. Local authorities have reported civilian casualties on both sides in Lyman and Belgorod. Thу latest onslaught comes hours after 3 people were killed and 2 injured in Russian shelling of two villages near Lyman in eastern Ukraine. In Moscow, one drone “was eliminated electronically and, after losing control, collided with a building under construction at the Moscow City complex without causing any casualties”, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram, accusing Kyiv of being behind the attack. According to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, several windows of 2 five-storey buildings have been damaged and emergency services are inspecting the area. Earlier, Russian news agency RIA News reported that an “explosion” was heard in the Moscow City in the west of the capital, about 5 kilometers from the Kremlin. A window on the edge of the skyscraper have been shattered and the glass around it blackened, an AFP photographer noticed. Then the area was cordoned off by the police. Sixth day in a row Two more drones were destroyed by air defense systems in the Mozhaysky district, 12km from the center of Moscow, and in the Khimki district, about 20km northwest of the Kremlin, the Defense Ministry said. According to RIA News, the hull of the drone shot down in Khimki damaged the roof and windows of an apartment block and the wall of a shopping center, but no one was injured. Air traffic at Moscow’s Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo airports was briefly halted before resuming, state news agency TASS reported, citing emergency services. Russian territory is now under drone attacks almost daily, and Moscow with its district have been under attack every day since Friday. On Friday, air defense forces shot down a drone that fell near the Exhibition Centre, adjacent to the skyscrapers of Moscow City. Over the summer, other aircraft were destroyed over Moscow’s business district, the largest in the Russian capital. In May 2 drones were shot down near the Kremlin. Belgorod authorities report about the dead during the shelling Regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported in Telegram about 3 dead “as a result of repeated shelling of the sanatorium in the Lavy village in Valuysky district.” After initially reporting that “there were no casualties,” Gladkov then wrote: “The AFU dropped an explosive device from a drone while people were on the street. Two men died of their wounds on the spot. Doctors tried to save another victim, but the injuries received were incompatible with life.” Russian drones damage grain infrastructure in Odesa region Russian drones have damaged grain infrastructure in the Odesa region overnight, local governor Oleg Kiper said Wednesday morning. Russia “have attacked the south of the Odesa region with drones for 3 hours,” Kiper said on Telegram, explaining that “production and transshipment hubs” were hit without civilian casualties. According to him, a fire broke out on an area of 700m2, which was extinguished. Among the damaged facilities were “granaries”, Kiper said. In total, the army destroyed nine Shahed-136/131 drones from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov, the Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine reported on Telegram. After Moscow pulled out of a grain deal in July that had allowed Ukraine to export grain despite the conflict, Russia intensified up its bombardment of Ukrainian port infrastructure. For its part, Kyiv used drones to target the Russian navy, an oil tanker and bridges leading to Crimea, annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Ukraine had also organized a sea corridor for the cargo ship Josef Schulte, which reached Turkey last week without being attacked by Russia. Lyman and naval clashes In Ukraine on Tuesday evening, Russian troops “struck villages around Lyman” in eastern Ukraine, with “3 people killed and 1 wounded in Torskoye and another civilian wounded in Zakitnoye,” Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the military administration of the Donetsk region, wrote on Telegram. “According to preliminary information, the invaders attacked the settlements with artillery,” the Donetsk region prosecutor’s office wrote on its Facebook page. Those killed were two women and a man, aged 63 to 88, who were sitting on a bench when the shelling hit in Torskoye, the prosecutor’s office detailed. In turn, Moscow claimed on Tuesday it had repelled an armed incursion from Ukraine into the border region of Bryansk. In the Black Sea, where naval clashes increased after Moscow had cancelled an agreement to export Ukrainian grain, Russia said Tuesday it had “destroyed” two Ukrainian military vessels. The Russian Defense Ministry explained that it had sunk a Ukrainian military vessel in an area of the Black Sea under its control, as well as a US-made Ukrainian gunboat off Zmiinyi Island, which Kyiv freed in 2022.