Kiev, May 30, (dpa/GNA) - Russian airstrikes targeted Kiev for the third night in a row, killing one person, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said on Tuesday morning, while Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Russia's capital, had been attacked by several drones. According to the military administration, more than 20 drones were destroyed by Ukrainian air defences in Kiev. Fragments of drones shot down by air defences crashed into an apartment building, killing one person and sending an elderly woman to hospital, the state news agency Ukrinform reported, citing the city administration and Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko. The apartment block caught fire and search efforts were underway to find any people, trapped under the rubble. Other fragments of drones crashed in various districts, damaging cars and other objects. The latest attacks follow the heaviest drone bombardment in months, with which Russia hammered the neighbouring country at the weekend. Russia has been waging a full-scale war against Ukraine for more than 15 months. In recent weeks, there has also been an increase in shelling and drone attacks in Russian regions, with Moscow apparently also a target. 'As a result of a drone attack, some buildings were slightly damaged early this morning,' Moscow Mayor Sobyanin wrote on Telegram on Tuesday, adding that no one was 'seriously injured.' Residents were taken to safety, and security forces were deployed. The governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov, said air defences had been active: 'Several drones were shot down on approach to Moscow.' Photos and videos of a column of smoke were shared on social media. 'This morning, the Kiev regime carried out an act of terrorism with unmanned aerial vehicles on objects in the city of Moscow,' the Russian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday. A total of eight drones were used, all of which have since been destroyed, the ministry said. Three had been diverted from their original flight path and the remaining five had been shot down by Russian air defences, it added. 'It is absolutely clear that these are responses by the Kiev regime to our rather effective strikes against one of the decision-making centres,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, according to the Interfax news agency. He was referring to an attack by the Russian military on Sunday, but did not give more specific details. The Russian Defence Ministry had not reported the destruction of high-level command structures in Kiev on Sunday or Monday. President Vladimir Putin had been informed about the drone attacks in real time since the morning, Peskov said. Ukraine has denied involvement in the drone attack on Moscow - and responded with derision. 'Of course, we are not directly involved,' Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the presidential office in Kiev, said on Tuesday on the breakfast radio show of Russian journalist Aleksandr Plyushchev, who is critical of the Kremlin. He scoffed that Russian drones may have returned to their senders. 'You know that we are approaching the era of artificial intelligence. Possibly not all drones are ready to attack Ukraine and they want to return to their creators and so ask: 'Why are you sending us against the children of Ukraine? On Kiev?' and so on,' Podolyak said. At the same time, the Ukrainian government adviser predicted that the number of attacks on Russian territory would probably continue to increase. 'All the people who believe … that they can destroy another sovereign state with absolute impunity have not yet understood after 15 months that they cannot repeat 2014,' he said, referring to the year that Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. Probably the most spectacular incident recently on Russian soil occurred at the beginning of May, when two drones were shot down directly over the Kremlin. Moscow blamed the alleged attempt to assassinate Putin on the leadership in Kiev, which denied involvement. Many international observers believe it is likely that the Kremlin attack was staged by Moscow itself to justify its brutal attacks on Ukraine. Russian government finances are under pressure from military spending, according to the daily intelligence report published by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in London on Tuesday. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russian defence spending in 2022 amounted to 4.1% of the country's gross domestic product, but how much Moscow actually spends on its armed forces is highly uncertain because of a lack of transparency, it said. 'It is almost certain that military spending remains elevated and this is putting pressure on Russian government finances,' the statement said. The MoD in London has been publishing daily updates on the war's progress since it started in February 2022, citing intelligence. Moscow accuses London of a disinformation campaign.

Source: Ghana News Agency