Drones Disrupt Moscow Airport Traffic for a Second Day
Ukrainian drones were intercepted over two parts of Russia, including near Moscow, Russian officials said early Tuesday morning, the latest in a Ukrainian campaign to bring the war to Russia’s citizens across their border. Flights at airports serving the capital were stopped temporarily.
In the Moscow region, two drones were shot down, Andrey Vorobyov, the regional governor, said on Telegram. One fell in Krasnogorsk, a town outside the capital, where windows shattered in a high-rise building and cars were damaged, though no one was injured, he wrote.
The damaged high rise was an apartment building, according to Tass, the state news agency. The other drone fell in nearby Chastsy, Mr. Vorobyov said.
The statements could not be independently verified. Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment on the drones, but Kyiv has increasingly demonstrated its ability to strike hundreds of miles inside Russia’s borders.
Flights were halted at Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo airports, but service at all three had resumed by 6 a.m., according to Tass. Drones also briefly disrupted flights at two Moscow airports on Monday.
Two other drones were electronically jammed and crashed in the Bryansk region, which shares a border with Ukraine, Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement.
Last week, Moscow said it intercepted a Ukrainian drone that then hit an exhibition center in Moscow’s financial district. Russia has reported some two dozen strikes in the Moscow area, an apparent attempt to make everyday Russians feel vulnerable, though they have caused only minor damage and few casualties.
Separately, the defense ministry said Tuesday morning in a statement on Telegram that a Russian plane had destroyed a Ukrainian intelligence vessel near a Russian gas facility in the Black Sea. Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment and the claim could not be independently confirmed.
The Black Sea has been a vital theater of the war since Russia’s full-scale invasion almost a year and a half ago, with Russian warships there firing cruise missiles at Ukraine. But the naval conflict has heated up recently as Ukraine has expanded the size and reach of its drone force.
Raising the stakes still higher, Russia withdrew last month from a deal allowing grain ships to pass to and from Ukraine, stepped up its bombardment of Ukrainian ports and made threats against civilian shipping from other nations trying to reach Ukraine.
