(Bloomberg) — A drone struck a residential tower in an upscale Moscow neighborhood in a rare strike near the city center ahead of a traditional World War II Victory Day parade.
Moscow’s air defenses repelled an attack by two Ukrainian drones, and one hit a building on Mosfilmovsky Street, according to a post by Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Monday. Emergency services responded to the scene, and there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Mosfilmovskaya is about 6 to 8 kilometers (about 4-5 miles) from the Kremlin, and local media showed damage to the upper floors of the luxury residential building. This is a rare example of a drone attack in a city, as air defenses usually intercept them outside the capital or in the suburbs.
This happened at a time when Moscow is preparing for a traditional parade on May 9 to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. The Defense Ministry announced last week that the parade would be held without heavy military equipment for the first time since 2007, in what the Kremlin said was a response to potential security threats.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is to deliver a speech at the parade, which this year’s guests will also be Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, the Kremlin said earlier.
Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russia and its energy infrastructure in recent months. It has also begun to regularly target places deeper in the country, hitting towns as far as 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) from the border in Russia’s Urals last week.
Russian authorities have responded with measures that include temporarily shutting down mobile and sometimes landline internet in cities, yet the strike in Moscow raises questions about the effectiveness of such unpopular moves. Public backlash over tightening internet restrictions in Russia has already led to a sharp drop in Putin’s approval ratings.
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