MOSCOW, Sept 10 (Reuters) – Ukraine on Tuesday struck Moscow and western Russia in one of its biggest ever drone attacks, killing at least one woman, wrecking dozens of homes and forcing the closure of major airports in the capital, Russian officials said.
Ukraine launched swarms of attack drones over the world’s biggest nuclear power. Russia said it destroyed at least 20 over the Moscow region, which has a population of over 21 million, and 124 more over eight other regions.
Three of Moscow’s four airports were closed for air traffic following the attacks, Russia’s aviation authority Rosaviatsia said. A major road leading to the capital was partially closed.
The drone attacks damaged at least two high-rise apartment buildings in the Ramenskoye district of the Moscow region, setting flats on fire, Moscow’s governor Andrei Vorobyov said.
A 46-year-old woman died and three people were injured in Ramenskoye, Vorobyov said. He added that 43 people were evacuated to temporary accommodation centres.
Social media videos showed flames bursting out of windows of a multi-storey residential building, saying that dozens of flats were damaged in the Ramenskoye district.
“I looked at the window and saw a ball of fire,” Alexander Li, a resident of the district told Reuters. “The window got blown out by the shockwave.”
The Ramenskoye district, some 50 kms (31 miles) southeast from the Kremlin, has a population of around quarter a million of people, according to official data.
