Ukraine repels an air attack after Russia threatens to respond harshly to targeting Moscow

 Ukraine announced that it had repulsed an air attack on Kyiv - early today, Tuesday - hours after Russia threatened a harsh response to the targeting of Moscow with two drones, while a Ukrainian official threatened to launch more attacks on the Russian capital, and this comes amid the continuation of fierce battles in eastern and southern Ukraine.

The head of the Ukrainian Military Administration in Kyiv, Sergey Boyko, said that the air defenses detected all the drones and destroyed them as they approached the capital, without specifying the number of planes that participated in the attack and where they were launched from.

Boyko added that the state of alert lasted 3 hours, noting that there were no casualties or destruction in Kyiv.

Before announcing the repulsion of the air attack on the Ukrainian capital, the military administration in Kyiv issued a warning of an attack by drones, calling on the population to stay in shelters. The Air Force also warned of similar attacks on the regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv (south), which overlook the Black Sea and include many ports that have become targets for Russia since its withdrawal from the grain export agreement.

Yesterday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the downing of two Ukrainian drones over Moscow, while the Foreign Ministry stressed the right to respond with harsh measures to what it described as a terrorist act.

This is the second attack of its kind on Moscow this month, as Russia had previously announced the downing of 5 drones over the vicinity of the capital, blaming Ukraine for the attack, which caused no injuries or damage, but led to traffic disruption at Vnukovo Airport, one of the city's three international airports.

The new attack targeted a vital area in the Russian capital, which includes the Ministry of Defense and other security headquarters, and damaged a commercial building, without causing any human injuries.

And the "TASS" agency said that one of the two marches crashed on Komsomolsky Prospekt near the Ministry of Defense, while the other hit a business center on Likhacheva Street, near one of the city's main circular streets.

For his part, a Ukrainian official confirmed - to Agence France-Presse - that the attack was a special operation carried out by the Military Intelligence Service of the Ministry of Defense.

A Ukrainian official has vowed to launch more similar attacks, according to what was reported by Reuters.

On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky threatened Moscow with retaliation after Russian attacks targeted grain export facilities in the city of Odesa (south), killing two people and damaging a historic cathedral.

Russian forces targeted Odesa for 4 consecutive days with missiles and drones, in response to the targeting of the bridge linking Russia to the Crimea peninsula - which Moscow annexed in 2014 - with two rigged drone boats.

In Odessa, the Ukrainian Southern Operations Command confirmed that at least 4 people were injured and that there were significant material losses yesterday, in a Russian attack with "Shahid" (Iranian-made) drones that targeted the infrastructure of the Danube port in the southwest of the province.

The spokeswoman for the Southern Operations Command, Natalya Hominyuk, said that the Ukrainian air defenses destroyed 3 drones in the attack, which lasted 4 hours and led to the destruction of a grain depot near Odesa and damage to storage tanks for goods.

In other field developments, traffic returned early today on the bridge linking Russia to the Crimea peninsula after stopping for hours, without it being clear why.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday that the danger of Ukrainian attacks on the Crimean Bridge still exists, adding that the matter requires a permanent high alert.

Before that, the pro-Moscow Crimean authorities said that they had shot down 10 marches that targeted an ammunition depot, and the authorities evacuated residents from villages near the scene.

On the other hand, Ukrainian media reported that explosions occurred in the Djankoy region of Crimea, after targeting Russian army weapons depots in the region.

On another issue, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that anti-personnel mines were detected at the site of the Ukrainian Zaporizhia nuclear plant, which was controlled by Russian forces in the first days of the war that began on February 24, 2022.

Over the past months, Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of bombing this station or seeking to sabotage it.

Source: Agencies