Russian officials said Ukrainian forces dropped explosives on a Russian village near the border with Ukraine, killing three, and targeted Moscow with drones for a sixth consecutive day on Wednesday.
The attacks appeared to be the latest in a Ukrainian campaign to bring the war to Russia’s citizens across their border.
Drone attacks deep in Russian territory have become more frequent as Ukraine wages a counteroffensive, which has been bogged down by what U.S. and other Western officials say is a misallocation of troops.
In the Russian capital, drones damaged a building under construction in a gleaming skyscraper complex known as Moscow City, which has been hit at least three times in the past month.
The deadly assault on Lavy, a village in the Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine, was the latest in near-daily attacks on the area that have killed at least six others this summer, according to Russian officials. Since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion almost 18 months ago, Ukrainian forces have regularly fired on villages in the region, according to the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Two other drones were shot down early Wednesday in suburban districts of the Moscow region, the Russian Defense Ministry said on the messaging app Telegram. According to the ministry, the drone that struck Moscow City was electronically jammed and lost control before crashing into the building.
Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment on the episodes, as has been their practice on attacks inside Russia. Asked about the attacks, a representative for the U.S. State Department said that it didn’t encourage them but that “it’s up to Ukraine to decide how to defend itself.”
“Russia started this unprovoked war against Ukraine,” the representative said. “Russia could end it at any time by withdrawing its forces from Ukraine instead of launching brutal attacks against Ukraine’s cities and people every day.”
The stepped-up attacks near the center of power in Moscow have been seen as an attempt to bring the war in Ukraine home to Russia and its citizens. The drone attacks in the Moscow region have not caused injuries or deaths, according to Russian officials.
Built mostly during President Vladimir V. Putin’s time in power, Moscow City has been held up as a symbol of the modernization of Russia’s economy. It houses government ministries as well as finance and tech companies.
Russia’s Federal Agency for Air Transport said that air traffic had been temporarily halted Wednesday morning at nearby airports for safety reasons and that at least two flights had been diverted.
Also early on Wednesday, Russian forces attacked the southern part of Ukraine’s Odesa region with drones, damaging shipping facilities including granaries, according to the regional Ukrainian military administration. Russia has for weeks been targeting Ukraine’s grain export infrastructure after pulling out of the internationally brokered Black Sea grain deal in July. The claims had not been independently verified.
Juston Jones and Edward Wong contributed reporting.
