Drone Hits Upscale Moscow Tower As City Readies For WWII Parade

(MENAFN- Live Mint) (Bloomberg) -- A drone hit a residential tower in an upscale Moscow district in a rare strike near the city center ahead of the traditional World War II Victory Day parade.

Moscow air defenses repelled an attack by two Ukrainian drones, and one hit the building on Mosfilmovskaya Street, according to a post Monday by Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. Emergency services were at the scene, and there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Mosfilmovskaya is about 6 to 8 kilometers (about 4-5 miles) from the Kremlin, and local media showed damage to the upper floors of a high-end residential building. It's a rare example of a drone strike in the city as air defenses typically intercept them outside the capital or in the suburbs.

It happened as Moscow prepares to stage its traditional May 9 parade marking the WWII defeat of Nazi Germany. The Defense Ministry announced last week that the parade would take place without heavy military equipment for the first time since 2007, in what the Kremlin said was a response to potential security threats.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to deliver a speech at the parade, with guests this year including Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, the Kremlin said earlier.

Ukraine has intensified strikes on Russia and its energy infrastructure in recent months. It has also begun regularly targeting locations deeper inside the country, with cities as far as to 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) from the border in the Russian Urals hit last week.

Russian authorities have responded with measures that include temporarily shutting down mobile and sometimes landline internet in cities, yet the strike in Moscow raises questions over the effectiveness of such unpopular steps. A public backlash over tightening internet restrictions in Russia has already led to a sharp decline in Putin's ratings.

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