Ukraine denies sending drone that crashed within 90.6km of Kremlin

The drone attack appeared to be the closest Ukrainian forces had come to striking Moscow since the start of Russia’s invasion.

UKraine military practice flying a drone. Picture: Getty Images.

Ukraine has denied that it was behind a string of drone attacks inside Russian territory on Tuesday, including one that crashed barely 60 miles (90.6km) from the Kremlin.

President Putin urged the FSB security service to step up efforts to identify saboteurs and western spies shortly after the attempted attacks.

“Ukraine doesn’t strike at the Russian Federation’s territory. Ukraine is waging a defensive war to de-occupy all its territories,” Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, tweeted yesterday.

Andrey Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region, said that an unmanned aerial vehicle had come down close to the city of Kolomna, southeast of the capital. He said there were no deaths and no damage on the ground.

The drone attack appeared to be the closest Ukrainian forces had come to striking the Russian capital since Putin ordered tanks over the border just over a year ago. “Soon Putin might get very afraid to show himself in public, as drones can reach far distances,” Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, said.

Russian media said on Tuesday that the drone had fallen within metres of a gas distribution station owned by Gazprom, the state-controlled energy giant. It was identified as a UJ-22 Airborne, a strike drone with a range of almost 500 miles that is manufactured by Ukraine’s Ukrjet company. The FSB said yesterday it had been carrying C-4 plastic explosives.

Podolyak suggested that the appearance of the drone so deep inside Russian territory was the result of “internal attacks” triggered by growing tensions in Moscow. The Kremlin accused him of lying. “We don’t believe him,” Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said.

“Apparently the drone quickly lost altitude, possibly due to running out of fuel, and damaged its wing against the trees, which caused it to fall,” Shot, a Russian Telegram channel, said.

Earlier on Tuesday the airspace around St Petersburg, Russia’s second city, was closed after a large drone-like object was spotted, with Russian fighter jets believed to have been scrambled to shoot it down.

The defence ministry claimed later that the airspace had been closed because of drills. It also said its forces had shot down drones attempting to attack civilian infrastructure in the Krasnodar and Adygea regions in southern Russia. Drone attacks were also reported in the Bryansk and Belgorod regions near the Ukraine border. One drone flew through the window of a flat in Belgorod, where 25 people have been killed by Ukrainian shelling.

The FSB also said yesterday that it had repelled a “massive” drone attack in Crimea, where explosions were reported overnight. The Ukrainian armed forces said that Russian military families were being evacuated from the Black Sea peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014. President Putin has warned that Russia could use nuclear weapons to defend the peninsula.

Russia installed air-defence systems on the roofs of government and military buildings in Moscow last month as well as close to Putin’s residences.

In December suspected Ukrainian drones twice attacked an airfield in Saratov, about 350 miles inside Russia, killing three servicemen. Officials in Kyiv celebrate strikes in Russia but do not claim responsibility for them, often attributing them to “careless smoking”. Russia said last year that it had repeatedly shot down drones over Crimea.

Speaking in Moscow after the attacks on Tuesday, Putin urged vigilance against western intelligence agents that he said were seeking to activate “terrorist” or “extremist” groups in Russia. The Kremlin has designated groups such as the FBK anti-corruption organisation founded by Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned opposition leader, as “extremist”.

Russia should work harder to prevent “sabotage groups” from entering the country from Ukraine, he added – comments that coincided with an apparent rejection of a peace plan put forward by China.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said that Russia would not withdraw its forces until Kyiv recognised its rule in Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhya, the four territories it attempted to annex in September.

Putin said at the weekend that Russia was fighting for its very existence, and that Russians as a people might not survive if Ukraine wins the war.

The Times