DRAMATIC footage shows the moment of a massive explosion after a fresh drone strike on a skyscraper in Moscow.
The overnight hit on the IQ Building in the heart of the capital’s business district called Moscow City was the second strike in two nights in a major blow for Vladimir Putin.
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The 50-storey government building was previously damaged after a strike in the early hours of Sunday.
Explosions ripped through several floors of two office blocks, as the drones penetrated the capital’s air defences.
And two days later, the same building, that houses the Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Communications, was targeted in another attack.
CCTV footage from the tower, just miles from the Kremlin, shows smoke billowing in the sky following the explosion around 1pm.
Major Moscow airport Vnukovo – used by Russian officials and VIPs – was temporarily closed.
Russian officials claimed the drone had been jammed by electronic warfare before smashing into the same tower as a UAV on 30 July.
There were no immediate reports of casualties although ambulances were at the scene.
An incoming drone was filmed over Odintsovo after midnight.
Two drones were shot down in Odintsovo and Naro-Fominsk, according to the Moscow authorities.
Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said the facade of the IQ tower was damaged.
He said: “One flew into the same tower at the Moscow City complex hit previously.
“The facade has been damaged on the 21st floor. Glazing was destroyed over 150 square metres.”
He added that emergency services were working at the scene and that there were no casualties.
The Defence Ministry said: “Two Ukrainian UAVs were destroyed in the air by air defence systems over the territory of Odintsovo and Naro-Fominsk districts of Moscow region.
“Another drone was suppressed by electronic warfare and, having lost control, crashed on the territory of the Moscow City non-residential building complex.”
Russia‘s defence ministry said in a statement the attempted “terrorist attack” by Kyiv was thwarted.
It said that two drones had been downed in suburbs west of the city centre.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukrainian attacks on Moscow and other Russian targets were “acts of desperation” and that Kremlin was taking all measures possible to protect against strikes.
The strikes come right after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to bring the war to Russia.
Following the drone strike on Sunday, Zelensky claimed the attacks were “inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process”.
And speaking from the western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk, he said: “Today is the 522nd day of the so-called ‘Special Military Operation’, which the Russian leadership thought would last a couple of weeks.
“Russian aggression has gone bankrupt on the battlefield Ukraine is getting stronger.
“Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia – to its symbolic centres and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process.”
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Aliki Kraterou
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