Two Ukraine-launched drones attacked Moscow early on Monday, but were intercepted and destroyed, Russia’s defence ministry said. State news agencies reported that drone fragments were found 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) away from the ministry’s buildings. Calling it a “terrorist attack,” the defence ministry said on its Telegram messaging app that there were no casualties in the attack. Read our live blog for all the latest developments in the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
4:17am: Moscow’s mayor says drones hit non-residential buildings
Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on his Telegram messaging app that two non-residential buildings were struck during the attack, which happened around 4 a.m. (0100 GMT). It was unclear whether the drones hit the buildings when they were downed, or whether they deliberately targeted the buildings.
Neither the defence ministry nor the mayor said where the drones were intercepted.
Russia’s state news agencies reported, citing emergency services, said that drone fragments were found near a building on the Komsomolsky Avenue, which is not far from the defence ministry’s buildings.
Traffic was closed on the Komsomolsky Avenue as well as was on Likhachev Avenue in Moscow’s south, where a high-rise office building was damaged, Russian news agencies reported.
Russia’s defence ministry television channel Zvezda published a short video on its Telegram channel showing a high-rise building with missing windows on top floors and damaged structure.
2:40am: Putin says Russia will replace Ukrainian grain exports to Africa
Russia will replace exports of Ukrainian grain to Africa, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday, after Moscow exited a deal allowing their safe shipment.
“Russia will continue its energetic efforts to provide supplies of grain, food products, fertilisers and other goods to Africa,” Putin said in a statement published on the Kremlin’s website.
“I want to give assurances that our country is capable of replacing the Ukrainian grain both on a commercial and free-of-charge basis.”
Moscow’s military operation blocked Ukraine’s Black Sea ports with warships until a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey and signed in July 2022 allowed for the passage of critical grain shipments.
Key developments from Sunday, July 23:
Russia struck the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odesa again on Sunday, local officials said, keeping up a barrage of attacks that has damaged critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine in the past week. FRANCE 24 correspondent Gulliver Cragg says it’s the “heaviest strike on Odesa” so far.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has met his closest ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, for the first time since the latter helped broker a deal to end a mutiny by Wagner fighters inside Russia last month.
Lukashenko on Sunday said he was “keeping” Russian Wagner mercenaries in central Belarus and that Minsk was “controlling” the situation with the notorious fighters on its territory.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Ukraine has taken back about 50% of the territory that Russia seized, although Kyiv’s counteroffensive will extend several months.
Read yesterday’s live blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)
(C) France M?dias Monde graphic studio
