Moscow, Kiev targeted by drone strikes as fighting intensifies

Both Ukraine and Russia reported on Tuesday morning that their capitals have been targeted by drones coming from the other side, as fighting between the warring neighbors intensifies.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said drones attacked the Russian capital on Tuesday morning, damaging several buildings.

Sobyanin ordered the evacuation of residents from the two apartment blocks that were targeted, according to messages posted on Telegram.

No information regarding casualties has been provided yet.

Moscow Region Governor Andrey Vorobyov reported having shot down several unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) near Moscow.

"This morning, residents of some districts in the Moscow Region could hear the sounds of explosions - it was our air defense in operation. Several drones were downed on their course to Moscow," Vorobyov said.

The drone attack early on Tuesday caused minor damage to a few buildings in the Russian capital, according to Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, who also emphasized that no one was seriously hurt.

‘Massive’ Russian drone raids kill 1, injure 4: Kiev

This is while Ukrainian officials claimed that “massive” Russian drone raids on Kiev killed one person and injured four more, but later explained that the casualties resulted from “falling debris” of shot-down drones.

"The attack was massive, came from different directions, in several waves," head of Kiev's military administration, Serhiy Popko, claimed on Tuesday in a post on his Telegram social media account.

“Massive attack! Stay indoors!” Kiev's mayor Vitali Klitschko further declared in a post on Telegram, claiming that a multi-story building was also damaged in the Holosiivskyi district.

Explaining the casualties, however, the Ukrainian officials also claimed that their forces shot down 20 Russian drones over the capital city, blaming "falling debris" for setting ablaze the high-rise residential building that killed one, wounded at least four, and forced the evacuation of 20 residents.

According to the military administration in Kiev, the two upper floors of the building have been destroyed, and there may still be survivors under the rubble.

It further stated that the "massive" drone raid marked the second such attack on the Ukrainian capital this week and the 17th since the start of the month.

Such claims by Kiev’s officials come just a week after a British government-tied think tank unveiled in a report that Ukraine has suffered a massive loss of 10,000 drones per month in its war against Russia.

Ukraine losing 10,000 drones per month to Russia: UK think tank

Ukraine is suffering a massive loss of 10,000 drones each month to Russia’s electronic warfare, a British think tank reports.

The report, prepared by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) further attributed the shooting down of the huge number of Western-supplied Ukrainian drones to Russia’s effective use of electronic warfare and technology-based defense systems.

The report appeared to entirely dismiss earlier publicity campaigns by Western media outlets, blaming Russian use of a large number of “Iranian drones” for major losses inflicted on the Ukrainian side. Both Tehran and Moscow had fiercely denied such allegations.

RUSI further pointed to Russian military’s persisting use of navigational interference in the battle area as a form of electronic protection against Ukrainian drone attacks.

It added that Moscow has demonstrated that it is "highly capable" of intercepting and decrypting Ukrainian military communications.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials have also expressed fears that their Soviet-era anti-aircraft defenses are running out of ammunition and that western systems such as the US Patriot are not arriving in enough numbers to fill the gap amid recent reports that one Patriot anti-air battery was destroyed in Kiev by a Russian missile.

Popko also claimed on Monday that in addition to maintaining "deep psychological tension" among Ukrainian civilians, Russia's leaders further desired to exhaust Ukraine's air defenses through the constant barrage of attacks.

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