Two drones flying near Moscow were shot down overnight, Russian officials said on Wednesday, in what appeared to be the third attempted attack near the Russian capital in recent days.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense blamed Ukraine for what it called an attempted “terrorist attack,” saying in a post on the Telegram messaging app that air defenses had destroyed the drones without casualties or damage.
One of the drones had been flying over the Domodedovo area on the southern outskirts of Moscow and the second was in the Minsk highway district to the west of the capital, the city’s mayor, Sergey S. Sobyanin, said in a Telegram post on Wednesday.
The claims could not be independently verified and there was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials, who rarely claim responsibility for attacks on Russian soil.
Until recently, Moscow had rarely been a target of attacks over the course of the 18-month war in Ukraine. But in recent weeks, Russian officials have reported a series of foiled aerial assaults — and Ukrainian officials have acknowledged that some were orchestrated by Kyiv.
Russian air defenses shot down a hostile drone that had been approaching the capital on Sunday, Mr. Sobyanin said, and Vnukovo airport, which serves Moscow, temporarily suspended flights for “security reasons,” according to a Telegram post from the Russian state news agency Tass.
On Monday, drones were also downed near the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow, according to Russian officials.
Last week, Russia’s defense ministry said it had shot down seven drones near Kaluga. A building in central Moscow housing government ministries was also twice struck by drones in 48 hours.
Though the assaults have caused minimal damage, they have reached deep into Russian territory and have been aimed at symbolic and military targets, including a strike near the Kremlin earlier this year.
“Moscow is rapidly getting used to a full-fledged war,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said on social media last week.