Boris Alekseev/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
- Footage shows a drone strike in Moscow causing a huge explosion in the capital's business district.
- Russia said on Sunday that it intercepted three drones, two of which crashed into a skyscraper.
- Unverified footage of the aftermath appears to show official government documents strewn on the street.
Footage published by Russia's news services on Sunday appears to show a drone causing a fiery explosion in Moscow's financial district.
The video briefly shows several of the district's glass skyscrapers before the camera pans to street level, after which a fireball loudly erupts near the ground. Smoke can then be seen rising from the strike area.
The clip was verified by news agency Storyful, per The Wall Street Journal.
Russian state-controlled news outlet RT tweeted the footage, blaming the strike on Ukraine.
—RT (@RT_com) July 30, 2023
The capital's mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, said on Sunday that two office buildings in Moscow were damaged by drone attacks, accusing Kyiv of carrying out the strikes. No one was injured, Sobyanin wrote.
Russia's Ministry of Defense said Moscow's air defense systems destroyed one drone on Sunday, while jamming another two drones that lost control and crashed into a building. The defense ministry blamed Ukraine for the attacks too.
Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for the strikes — the latest in a series of assaults on the capital this year. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy referenced the drone attacks in his daily address on Sunday.
"Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia - to its symbolic centers and military bases," he said. "And this is an inevitable, natural, and fair process."
Footage of the aftermath posted on Telegram and social media showed one of Moscow's skyscrapers clearly damaged from the strike.
—RT (@RT_com) July 30, 2023
State media outlet TASS wrote that the explosion hit the fifth and sixth floors of a 50-floor building.
Russian independent journalism collective ASTRA reported that at least two Russian ministries occupied offices in the building and posted videos of pedestrians collecting government documents that drifted onto the street.
ASTRA also uploaded clips that appear to show the destroyed interior of the offices, as well as footage of the blast taken from inside surrounding apartments. Insider was unable to independently verify the authenticity of this footage.
The drone strikes on Moscow come as the Kremlin continues to launch attacks on civilian-heavy areas in Ukraine, where the United Nations estimates that more than 9,000 civilians, including 500 children, have been killed in the war.