Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said war is “returning” to Russian soil after a drone attack in Moscow.
In his daily address on Sunday, as reported by The Kyiv Independent, Zelensky said “Ukraine is becoming stronger” — more than 500 days after Russia began its invasion of his country.
“The war is gradually returning to Russia’s territory, to its symbolic centers and military bases,” Zelensky said. “This is an inevitable, natural, and absolutely fair process.”
The message followed what Russian officials said was a Ukrainian drone attack on Sunday in Moscow, which is about 300 miles away from Ukraine’s border with Russia.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it brought down three drones, destroying one in the air and jamming two others that then crashed.
Local authorities said at least one person was injured and some buildings were damaged. In addition, flights at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport were briefly suspended.
Ukrainian authorities have not publicly claimed responsibility for the most recent attack, but Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat reportedly said, “There’s always something flying in Russia, as well as in Moscow. Now the war is affecting those who were not concerned.”
“No matter how the Russian authorities would like to turn a blind eye on this by saying they have intercepted everything … something does hit,” Ihnat added.
Both sides have reported being attacked by drones in the bloody conflict that has dragged on since February of last year, with Ukraine backed by tens of billions of dollars in security assistance from the United States and other Western allies.
Ukraine’s military said on Sunday it shot down four Russian drones above the Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions, per the Associated Press. And there have been multiple strikes on Russia’s capital region reported this month. A Kyiv official told CNN on the condition of anonymity that Ukraine carried out a drone strike on Moscow that took place on Monday.
Last week, when Ukraine’s security service claimed responsibility for an explosion in October that badly damaged a bridge connecting Crimea to mainland Russia, a top official said there could be more disclosures in the future.
“There were many different operations, special operations. We’ll be able to speak about some of them publicly and out loud after the victory, we will not talk at all about others,” said Ukrainian Security Service head Vasyl Malyuk. “It is one of our actions, namely the destruction of the Crimean bridge on October 8 last year.”