Closing summary
The blog has come to an end for today. Below is a summary of the day’s stories:
Moscow has been targeted with a large-scale drone attack for the first time in its 15-month-old war in Ukraine, marking a new inflection point in a conflict that the Kremlin said would never threaten the lives of ordinary Russians.
Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of terrorist activity over Tuesday morning’s drone attacks and claimed Kyiv had chosen the path of intimidation of Russian citizens. He said that Ukraine had chosen the path of attempting “to intimidate Russia, Russian citizens [with] attacks on residential buildings” and added that the drone attacks were “clearly a sign of terrorist activity.”
Ukrainian presidential aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, earlier denied Ukraine was involved. However, he did he predict “an increase in the number of attacks”
One of the drones used in Tuesday morning’s drone raid on Moscow appears to have been a Ukrainian manufactured UJ 22 drone produced by the Ukrjet company. Alleged footage of the drone, captured in flight during the attack, appears to match released images of the unmanned aerial vehicle which Russia has claimed has been used in other attempted attacks.
James Cleverly, the UK’s foreign secretary, told reporters that Ukraine has the “legitimate right” to defend itself and can “project force” beyond its borders. At a news conference in Estonia on Tuesday, Cleverly said: “[Ukraine] has the legitimate right to do so within its own borders of course, but it does also have the right to project force beyond its borders to undermine Russia’s ability to project force into Ukraine itself.”
The Russian defence ministry said eight drones targeted the city overnight but Russian media close to the security services wrote that the number was many times higher, with more than 30 drones participating in the attack.
Three of the drones hit residential buildings in the south-west of the city but no explosions were reported. Two people were injured in the attack, said Sergei Sobyanin, the Moscow mayor, and the buildings sustained minor damage. Video showed broken windows and a blackened facade at one address hit by a drone early on Tuesday morning.
Russia blamed Kyiv for the attack. Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak denied Ukraine was involved, but said he predicted “an increase in the number of attacks”
Russia continues to pummel Ukraine with deadly missile and drone strikes on a near-daily basis. Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, faced its third air raid in 24 hours on Tuesday morning. Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has confirmed that 20 residents were evacuated from a damaged building, and that one person died, four were injured. He cautioned residents against ignoring air alarms, urging residents to stay indoors, saying “do not go out to the balconies and streets to observe how the air defence works. Last night, a woman died in a house in Holosiivskyi district, who went out on the balcony to see how drones were shot down."
Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s UN ambassador, has held a meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi, the Russian state-owned TASS news agency said, citing a source.
Last October, Grossi met with Russian president Vladimir Putin as part of the IAEA’s efforts to prevent a nuclear accident during Russia-Ukraine war.
The IAEA seeks to limit to use of nuclear capabilities to peaceful energy production and is opposed to its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. The organisation reports to the both the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations.
BAE Systems, the UK’s largest defence company, has begun work to open an office in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said on Telegram.
Zelenskiy had a virtual meeting with the company’s CEO Charles Woodburn, managing director Gabby Costigan and senior director for central & eastern Europe Christian Seear.
Zelenskiy said: “We discussed the localisation of production in Ukraine. We agreed to start work on opening a BAE Systems office in Ukraine, and subsequently repair and production facilities for the company’s products.”
Earlier this month, the Guardian reported that UK arms sales reached a record £8.5bn amid a rise in global tensions.
At least one of the drones used in Tuesday morning’s attacks on Moscow appears to have been a Ukrainian manufactured UJ-22 drone. The UJ-22 is believed to have a flight range of 800km. The distance from the Ukrainian border to Moscow is about 450km.
Our graphics team has put together some visuals detailing the capabilities of the UJ-22 drone.
The White House said that the US is still gathering information regarding reports of drones striking Moscow and reiterated that it does not support attacks inside Russia and is focused on helping Ukraine retake its territory, Reuters reports.
In a statement, a spokesperson said the US is “focused on providing Ukraine with the equipment and training they need to retake their own sovereign territory.”
Updated
Reuters reports that the European Commission and the US state department have expressed concern about new Polish legislation they say could effectively ban individuals deemed to have acted under Russian influence from holding public office for ten years without providing proper judicial review.
Polish president, Andrzej Duda, said on Monday that he would sign a bill that would allow a panel to investigate whether the opposition party Civic Platform (PO), led by Donald Tusk, allowed the country to be unduly influenced by Russia and as a result became too dependent on its fuel when it was in power. The law is being floated ahead of parliamentary elections later this year.
The European Commission said it was concerned by the law and would not hesitate to take action, if necessary.
“This new law raises concerns that it could be used to affect the possibility of individuals to run for public office, without fair trial,” it said in a statement.
The US state department said it was concerned the law “could be misused to interfere with Poland’s free and fair elections” and block opposition politicians’ candidacy without due process.
The PO party rejects the claims and says the law is designed to destroy support for Tusk in the lead up to the elections being held at the end of the year.
On Monday, PO lawmaker Marcin Kierwinski told broadcaster TVN24: “In a normal democratic country, somebody who is president of that country would never sign such a Stalin-esque law.”
James Cleverly, the UK’s foreign secretary, has told Sky News that Ukraine has the “legitimate right” to defend itself and can “project force” beyond its borders.
At a news conference in Estonia on Tuesday, Cleverly was asked a question from Sky News about this morning’s drone attack in Moscow and whether Ukraine has the right to attack Russian territory.
Cleverly said: “[Ukraine] has the legitimate right to do so within its own borders of course, but it does also have the right to project force beyond its borders to undermine Russia’s ability to project force into Ukraine itself.”
Cleverly added that “legitimate military targets” beyond Ukraine’s border are part of its self-defence.
Reuters has spoken to Moscow residents after the first large-scale drone attack on the Russian capital during 15 months of war.
Natalia, 59, told Reuters:
The Kyiv regime is already crossing all the lines … This is very sad, especially since they are directing these drones at residential buildings, at the city, at civilians, where there are no military facilities.”
Civilian targets in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities have been struck repeatedly by Russian drones and missiles.
Some residents who spoke to Reuters suggested that the conflict in Ukraine was always likely to make itself felt at home, sooner or later.
Olga, who said she lived near to the site of one of the drone collisions on Profsoyuznaya Street, said the strikes were:
Logical, to be expected … what else were we waiting for?
Of course I am glad it didn’t fall on our house, just nearby …I’m thinking about moving to a safer place.
A middle-aged man, who declined to give his name, told Reuters:
You need to understand cause and effect, why everything is happening.
I think that these attacks are due to only one thing: the fact that our ruler began waging a war.
All of this is because of our ruler … It’s no surprise it’s bounced back to here.
Updated
In his comments today, Russian president Vladimir Putin has claimed that within the last days Russia struck the military intelligence headquarters of Ukraine. Tass reports he said:
We have already talked about the possibility of striking at decision-making headquarters, at decision-making centers. Of course, the military intelligence headquarters of Ukraine, which was struck two or three days ago, also belongs to this category.
Updated
Here are some more pictures of the aftermath of Russia’s attack on Kyiv overnight, which left one person dead.
Putin: Kyiv trying to intimidate Russian civilians
Russian president Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of terrorist activity and claimed Kyiv has chosen the path of intimidation of Russian citizens.
He said that the drone attack on Moscow earlier on Tuesday was aimed at “civilian targets” and that the capital’s air defences would be boosted. He said that they had worked satisfactorily but “there was something to work on”.
He said that Ukraine had chosen the path of attempting “to intimidate Russia, Russian citizens [with] attacks on residential buildings” and added that the drone attacks were “clearly a sign of terrorist activity.”
The president, who ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year, in comments carried by Tass, also threatened retaliation, saying residents of Ukraine should understand that the leadership of their country is pushing Russia to respond.
He said it was not Russia that unleashed the war, again blaming Nato expansion.
He stated that competition between the Russian Federation and Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union was inevitable, but it was assumed that it would go in a civilized way.
However, he asserted that Ukraine was then controlled by people who embarked on the path of creating anti-Russian sentiment at the suggestion of the west, and that Russia was deceived when they promised not to expand Nato to the east, and then they even got to Ukraine, which was promised eventual Nato membership.
Updated
Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksii Reznikov wants Germany and Britain to send his country Eurofighter Typhoon jets to combat Russian air attacks, he said in an interview published on Tuesday by the Funke media group.
Ukraine has been campaigning for its western allies to provide it with fighter jets, in particular the US-built F-16s flown by several Nato nations.
Germany and Britain have so far declined to send jets, saying they do not have the F-16s that Ukraine wants. They say the time required to train pilots and the substantial support crews needed to send their Eurofighter Typhoon jets meant they would be of little immediate use.
Reznikov, however, said these could also be helpful in Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion.
A spokesperson for the German defence ministry said Berlin’s stance still stood. Britain’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
So far, no western-designed jets have been donated. Poland and Slovakia have supplied 27 MiG-29s to supplement Ukraine’s Soviet-era fleet.
Tuesday’s drone attacks targeted some of Moscow’s wealthiest areas. Reuters reports that this included a western zone where Putin and the elite have residences.
The Guardian spoke to a security guard based in the elite gated community in Zhukovka, near where the strikes took place.
I woke up at 6.15 from a loud explosion, and then for the next 45 minutes there were around six other booms every 10 minutes or so.
It was fucked up, everyone came out on their balconies or went outside, no one understood what was happening.
Dmitry, who lives in the pine-forested Odintsovo district, just west of Moscow, told the Guardian:
At 6am it started happening, our house was shaking. There were five to seven explosions, and that was it … then we went back to sleep.
Reuters reports that Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said on Tuesday that the west was “supporting genocide” in Ukraine by backing president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s peace plan, which Lavrov claimed would “destroy everything Russian” in east Ukraine and Crimea.
“The conclusion is very simple – the west directly supports genocide,” Lavrov said during a press conference in Kenya.
Lavrov did not offer evidence to support his claim. Russia has long accused the west of ignoring what it says is Ukrainian persecution of Russian language speakers in the eastern Donbas region and elsewhere.
Last Friday, Zelenskiy aide Ihor Zhovkva told Reuters that Ukraine had no interest in a ceasefire that locks in Russian territorial gains, and wanted the implementation of the nation’s own peace plan, which envisages the full withdrawal of Russian troops.
“There cannot be a Brazilian peace plan, a Chinese peace plan, a South African peace plan when you are talking about the war in Ukraine,” Zhovkva said.
Updated
Eric Garcetti, the US ambassador to India, has told a news channel that disagreements over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will not hinder US relations with India, Reuters reports.
The Indian government has refused to condemn Russia for the war and has increased its trade with Moscow to record levels, driven largely by imports of Russian oil.
Speaking to CNN-News 18 on Tuesday, Garcetti noted that India had helped to keep the price cap on Russian oil imposed by the G7 countries, the European Union and Australia last year to try to deprive Moscow of funds to fight its Ukraine war.
Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, is to make a state visit to the US next month.
Updated
Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, claimed that the west was stepping up equipment and arms supplies to Kyiv ahead of what he said would be a “large-scale” Ukrainian offensive, Reuters reports.
“This morning, the Kyiv regime carried out a terrorist attack in the Moscow region. On civilian targets, I note,” said Shoigu.
Speaking on state television, Shoigu also said Russia was inflicting “effective fire damage on the enemy” and that the western weapons would not change the outcome of Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Ukrainian presidential aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, earlier denied Ukraine was involved, but said he predicted “an increase in the number of attacks”
Updated
BBC journalist Francis Starr has shared a clip on Twitter of Russian state TV host Vladimir Solovyov calling for Ukrainian regions including Kyiv, Odesa and Dnipro to be “dismantled”.
“There should be strikes on those cities today, much more brutal than our current ones,” he said.
He also said the country is “fighting Nato”.
“Nato has supplied everything for Russia’s destruction,” he added.
Vladimir Solovyov responds to this morning’s drone attacks on Moscow
— Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) May 30, 2023
He says the sooner people in Russian cities recognise that their country is "fighting Nato", the sooner Russia will win
He also calls for Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk to be "dismantled" pic.twitter.com/64V1tgngkU
Updated
What do we know about the drone attack on Moscow?
At least one of the drones used to attack the outskirts of Moscow appears to have been a Ukrainian manufactured UJ 22 drone produced by the Ukrjet company.
Alleged footage of the drone, captured in flight during the attack, appears to match released images of the unmanned aerial vehicle which Russia has claimed has been used in other attempted attacks.
Looking like a scaled down light aircraft, the UJ22 has a claimed range of 800km and able to fly for six hours, the UJ 22 was designed primarily as a reconnaissance and attack drone able to carry a payload of about 20 kilos, typically grenades and mines – including six RPG-7VM grenades, or four 82-mm mortar mines.
Able to take off and land on a 100m air strip, the operating range with a ground crew is believed to be about 100km. However recent use of the drones suggests that certain models have been refitted as kamikaze drones with target information pre-programmed into the aircraft.
Images of damage to buildings in Moscow from Tuesday’s drone attack appeared consistent with a small explosive payload that appears to have led to largely superficial damage.
If confirmed as a UJ 22, it would fit with an apparent pattern of recent efforts by Kyiv to hit targets deep inside Russia with drones.
In February 2023 UJ-22 crashed in Russia 100km from Moscow after managing to travel about 460km into Russian territory without being destroyed by Russia’s air defences.
The latest attack – in terms of scale at least – suggests Ukraine is becoming more ambitious in both the scope and its abilities to conduct long-range drone attacks even if the weapons involved have much smaller payloads than the Iranian-manufactured Shaheed drones being used by Russia to attack Ukraine.
The primary purpose of recent Ukrainian drone attacks deep inside Russia appears as much psychological as anything else – an attempt to bring the war in Ukraine to the doorstep of Russians.
Updated
Reuters reports that Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was briefed early in the morning about the drone attacks on Moscow and is working in the Kremlin, according to his spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Peskov also said the “Kyiv regime” was behind the attacks and added that there was no threat to Moscow residents because Russia’s air defences and military had dealt with the situation well.
Speaking to reporters, Peskov said: “It is, of course, obvious that this is an attack by the Kyiv regime.”
Peskov added that Putin does not have any plans to make a special address to the Russian people at this moment.
Ukraine has denied it was behind the today’s attacks.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Moscow has been targeted with a large-scale drone attack for the first time in its 15-month-old war in Ukraine, marking a new inflection point in a conflict that the Kremlin said would never threaten the lives of ordinary Russians.
The Russian defence ministry said eight drones targeted the city overnight but Russian media close to the security services wrote that the number was many times higher, with more than 30 drones participating in the attack.
Three of the drones hit residential buildings in the south-west of the city but no explosions were reported. Two people were injured in the attack, said Sergei Sobyanin, the Moscow mayor, and the buildings sustained minor damage. Video showed broken windows and a blackened facade at one address hit by a drone early on Tuesday morning.
Russia blamed Kyiv for the attack. Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak denied Ukraine was involved, but said he predicted “an increase in the number of attacks”
Russia continues to pummel Ukraine with deadly missile and drone strikes on a near-daily basis. Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, faced its third air raid in 24 hours on Tuesday morning. Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has confirmed that 20 residents were evacuated from a damaged building, and that one person died, four were injured. He cautioned residents against ignoring air alarms, urging residents to stay indoors, saying “do not go out to the balconies and streets to observe how the air defence works. Last night, a woman died in a house in Holosiivskyi district, who went out on the balcony to see how drones were shot down.”
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that in the last 24 hours, the Russian army shelled eight cities and towns of the Donetsk region. It states that a total of 26 civilian objects were damaged, 10 people were injured, and two people died.
Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, has appointed Konstantin Molostov as chairman of the country’s state border committee. He replaces Anatoly Lappo, who has been retired from military service.
Updated
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has confirmed that 20 residents were evacuated from the damaged building after last night’s attack on Kyiv, and that one person died, four were injured.
In a Telegram post confirming that he had visited the 24-story building in the Holosiivskyi district affected, he said:
Search and rescue operations have been completed. Damaged cars of residents are taken out of the yard. At night, 20 residents were evacuated from the damaged building. One person died, four were injured.
The commission is already examining the extent of the damage in order to begin restoration work as soon as possible.
In general, as a result of the night attack, one person died. Eleven were injured. Of those: six people received medical care on an outpatient basis, five were hospitalised. Currently, three people are in the city’s hospitals.
Klitschko added a warning in his message, telling residents:
The probability of air attacks is very high. Therefore, I urge the citizens of Kyiv not to neglect their own safety, not to ignore the alarm signals!
And do not go out to the balconies and streets to observe how the air defence works. Because at night, a woman died in a house in Holosiivskyi district, who went out on the balcony to see how drones were shot down.
Updated
Andrei Krasov, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma defence committee in Russia, has been quoted by Tass saying that the drone attack on Moscow this morning had been intended to spread panic, but had failed.
On the morning after a night in which Ukraine claimed Russia launched 31 drones at Kyiv, resulting in at least one civilian death, Krasov said Russia’s armed forces “use weapons and military equipment only in relation to military facilities, in relation to military infrastructure” while accusing Kyiv of trying “to strike at civilian objects and sow panic”.
He said Ukraine intended to cause fear among residents not only of Moscow and the Moscow region, but also in other regions.
“But this action, which they so carefully planned, fell through,” he added, saying “The Russian Federation has rich experience in conducting counter-terrorist operations. We gained this experience in the fight against terrorists in the North Caucasus, in Syria. We have rich combat experience. We will apply this experience properly now.”
The UN has recorded over 18,000 civilian casualties, including more than 6,660 people killed, since Russian launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia has attacked Kyiv with missiles and drones for three consecutive days.
Updated
Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, has appointed Konstantin Molostov as chairman of the country’s state border committee, Reuters reports the Belta news agency said on Tuesday.
He replaces Anatoly Lappo, who has been retired from military service, Belta said. The state border committee is responsible for ensuring border security.
The new appointment comes amid heightened tensions with neighbouring Poland. Warsaw said last week it would close its eastern border to Belarusian and Russian freight vehicles.
Russia used Belarus as a launching pad in February 2022 last year for its failed attempt to capture Kyiv in Ukraine.
Updated
Our video team have put together this report on the overnight strikes in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.
A Ukrainian presidential aide denied Kyiv was directly involved in a drone attack on Moscow on Tuesday, but predicted an increase in such attacks.
Russia said Ukraine had launched its biggest drone attack on Moscow but that air defences destroyed all eight of the drones.
Reuters reports Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, told the Breakfast Show YouTube channel “regarding the attacks: of course we are pleased to watch and predict an increase in the number of attacks. But of course we have nothing directly to do with this.”
Updated
Moscow mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, has said that residents are beginning to move back into their apartments after they were evacuated earlier after drones attacks. He posted to Telegram to say:
Emergency services have taken all the necessary measures to study the circumstances of buildings damaged by unmanned aerial vehicles. [Having been] evacuated for the purpose of unhindered work of special services, residents are beginning to return to their homes. Residents of the building on Leninsky Prospekt will be the first to return to their apartments. Specialists have been instructed to eliminate minor damages in buildings as soon as possible.
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports that in the last 24 hours, the Russian army shelled eight cities and towns of the Donetsk region.
It states that a total of 26 civilian objects were damaged, ten people were injured, and two people died.
The claims have not been independently verified. Donetsk is one of four Ukrainian regions which the Russian Federation claimed to have annexed last year.
Here are some more of the images from Kyiv overnight, showing the impact of the overnight strike on local residents.
A video clip purported to be from the site is being widely shared on social media, showing two children discussing the events, with one asking “How did we even survive there” and the other replying “I don’t know”. They are identified as being six and eight years old.
Updated
Russian state-owned news agency Tass reports that traffic in Moscow was blocked for about an hour along Udaltsova Street from Leninsky Prospekt to Mikhail Pevtsov Street as a result of the drone attacks, but that it has reopened. Tass also reports that Moscow’s airports are operating normally.
It has this timeline of how reports of the drone attacks in Moscow earlier today unfolded. It writes:
Early on Tuesday morning, Tass was informed by the press service of the capital’s head office of the ministry of emergency situations that employees of the department are investigating the circumstances of an incident along Atlasova Street, during which windows were broken in a multi-storey residential building. Fire and rescue units arrived at the scene. No signs of fire were found. According to eyewitnesses, the sound of an explosion was heard at the time of the incident.
Emergency services told Tass fragments similar to a drone were found around the house. Windows on three floors were broken.
Later it became known that law enforcement officers were checking information about two more multi-storey residential buildings in the west and south-west of Moscow, located at Leninsky Prospekt and Profsoyuznaya Street. There were also broken windows in some apartments.
Here are some of the images sent to us over the news wires from Kyiv, which has been attacked by Russian missiles and drones for three consecutive nights.
Updated
Kyiv resident Valeriya Oreshko has told the Associated Press in the aftermath of Russia’s drone strikes on Ukraine’s capital that even though the immediate threat was over, the attacks had everyone on edge.
“You are happy that you are alive, but think about what will happen next,” the 39-year-old said.
Another resident, Oksana, who only gave her first name, said her whole building shook when it was hit.
“Go to shelters, because you really do not know where it [the drone] will fly,” she advised others. “We hold on.”
Elsewhere in Kyiv, AP report falling debris caused a fire in a private house in the Darnytskyi district and three cars were set alight in the Pechersky district, according to the military administration.
Updated
Russian ministry of defence blames Kyiv for 'terrorist' Moscow attack involving eight drones
In a statement, the Russian ministry of defence has accused Ukraine of being behind an attack on Moscow which it claimed used eight unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
It wrote on Telegram:
This morning, the Kyiv regime has launched a terrorist drone attack on the city of Moscow.
Eight aircraft-type drones were employed in the attack. All enemy drones were downed.
Three of them were suppressed by electronic warfare, lost control, and deviated from the intended targets.
Five more UAVs were shot down by the Pantsir-S SAM system in Moscow region.
Moscow’s mayor has said that nobody was seriously injured in the attack, but that residents had to be evacuated from some apartments, and that two people sought medical assistance. Emergency services are working on the scene.
Last month drones caused minor damage at the Kremlin, in an apparent attack which Russia blamed on Ukraine, and described as an attempt to assassinateVladimir Putin, despite him not being in the building at the time.
Updated
Here are some of the first images we have been sent over the news wires of the incident in Moscow, where two people sought medical attention after drones struck buildings in an attack.
Anton Gerashchenko, a former Ukrainian minister, has described the overnight situation in Kyiv as “difficult”. In a tweet he said:
Another difficult night for Kyiv. Now just hours passed between Russian attacks.
Russia launched 31 drones last night, from different directions, in waves, to make it more difficult for air defence. 29 drones were shot down.
A residential building was on fire when drone fragments hit it. One person died, several wounded, many evacuated. Several private buildings and many cars were damaged according to the Kyiv mayor.
Most of us got little to no sleep last night, hearing explosions and praying for our air defence. We joke that in Kyiv it will take you three days to get eight hours of sleep. We hold on, we fight and we will get through all this.
Another difficult night for Kyiv. Now just hours passed between Russian attacks.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) May 30, 2023
Russia launched 31 drones last night, from different directions, in waves, to make it more difficult for air defense. 29 drones were shot down.
A residential building was on fire when drone… pic.twitter.com/RLltZdcheD
Here is a recap of the messages that Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, has sent out this morning after an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attack on Russia’s capital. His initial message on the Telegram app came at 7.21am local time (5.21am BST) and said:
Early this morning, a UAV attack caused minor damage to several buildings. All emergency services of the city are at the scene of incidents. They are finding out the circumstances of what happened. So far, no one has been seriously hurt. I ask you to trust only official sources and not to distribute unverified information.
25 minutes later the mayor sent a second message, telling residents of the city:
For safety reasons, during the work of emergency services, measures were taken to evacuate several residents in two houses that were hit by a UAV. Immediately after the end of the work of special services, residents will be able to return to their apartments.
An hour later he gave this update:
According to information from the medical services of the city, at the moment, none of the residents of the houses damaged by the UAV were seriously injured. Two people sought medical attention. Nobody needed hospitalisation, all necessary assistance was provided on the spot. Also, emergency services and several ambulance teams continue to work at the scene of incidents.
The investigative committee of the Russian Federation has issued a statement about the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attack on Moscow. It says:
Investigators of the investigative committee are investigating the facts of the fall of UAVs on buildings in Moscow
Several buildings in Moscow have suffered minor damage as a result of the fall of unmanned aerial vehicles.
In addition, a number of unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down by Russian air defence forces on their way to Moscow.
According to preliminary data, there are no victims. City emergency services are on the scene. Russian investigative committee employees are also working at the scene. Persons involved in the crime are being identified.
Reuters has a quick snap that Moscow’s mayor has said that two people sought medical assistance, but nobody was seriously injured in the drone attack on Moscow.
“No one was hospitalised and the necessary assistance was provided on the spot,” Sergei Sobyanin wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Here is our story with what we know so far about the attack on Moscow:
The attack on Moscow follows a similar assault on Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv, which was carried out by Russian drones overnight and left at least one person dead, according to the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Russian forces fired a barrage of missiles at Kyiv during the daytime on Monday, sending panicked residents running for shelter in an unusual daytime attack on the Ukrainian capital following overnight strikes, AFP reports.
In early May, two drones were shot down over the Kremlin in an attack blamed on Ukraine.
Moscow, located more than 1,000km (620 miles) from Ukraine, has only rarely been targeted by drone attacks since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, AFP reports, even though such attacks have become more common elsewhere in Russia.
Images posted on social media showed traces of smoke in the sky over Moscow. Others showed a broken window.
Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region, has said on his Telegram channel that several drones were shot down on their approach to Moscow, Reuters reports.
It was not immediately clear who launched the drones. Several of Russia’s Telegram messaging channels reported that four to 10 drones were shot on the outskirts of Moscow and in its immediate region.
Sobyanin said that some residents were being evacuated.
Russia’s RIA state news agency reports that some residents of a building on Moscow’s Profsoyuznaya Street in the city’s south were being evacuated.
Drones hit several buildings in Moscow – Moscow mayor
Drones hit several buildings in Moscow causing “minor” damage and no serious injuries, the mayor of the Russian capital said early on Tuesday.
“All emergency services of the city are at the scene of incidents,” Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a statement.
Russia’s RIA state news agency reported that some residents of a building on Moscow’s Profsoyuznaya Street in the city’s south were being evacuated.
Several of Russia’s Telegram messaging channels reported that four to 10 drones were shot early on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
Neither Reuters nor the Guardian were able to independently verify the reports.
Updated
We’re back. If you’re just joining us, at least one person has died in Kyiv and three were injured when falling debris reportedly from a destroyed Russian drone hit a high-rise apartment building early on Tuesday and started a fire, officials in the Ukrainian capital said.
The attack on Kyiv was the third in 24 hours and came after a rare daytime attack on Monday that sent people running for shelter.
Below is a link to our full story on this morning’s attacks in Kyiv – we’ll be pausing this blog for a while – back shortly.
Here are some more photos from the aftermath of the attacks:
⚡ Photos of damaged cars in the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv were published by the Kyiv City Military Administration. pic.twitter.com/88n2pDKPqQ
— FLASH (@Flash_news_ua) May 30, 2023
The Residential High-Rise in the Holosiivskyi District of Kyiv that was on Fire as a result of Debris from a Shahed-136 Drone has been Extinguished with the Top-2 Floors appearing to suffer Severe Damage; City Officials have stated that the Fire had Killed at least 1 Civilian and… pic.twitter.com/UMF65jHFnV
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) May 30, 2023
Kyiv has been given the all clear – the air raid alarms have stopped.
The Kyiv City Military Administration has posted its summary of the attack, saying, “In the last 24 hours, the enemy has already carried out 3 attacks. Moreover, the enemy is constantly changing weapons for attack, after the combined missile-drone, and then ballistic, the aggressor used exclusively UAVs.”
Around 20 drones were launched at the city, the administration said.
One dead in apartment building fire
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko says that a person has died in the fire in a residential building in Holosiivskyi district, which was caused by falling debris from a drone.
“In the Holosiivskyi district, where a fire broke out in a high-rise building as a result of falling debris, rescuers have currently evacuated 20 people from the building. One person died. One elderly woman is hospitalised by doctors. Two victims were treated on the spot,” Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
If you’re just joining us: at least one person was injured on Monday night in a “massive attack” by Russian drones on the Ukrainian capital, the city’s mayor said.
A 27-year-old woman was hospitalised with “moderate” injuries caused by falling debris in a southern area of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
“Massive attack! Stay indoors!” the mayor said, adding that a multi-storey building was also damaged in the Holosiivskyi district.
The city’s military administration said the nighttime attack was carried out using drones.
Falling debris caused a fire at a house in the city’s southern Darnytskyi district, and three cars in the centrally located Pechersky district were also up in flames, the administration said.
Air raid sirens rang out overnight in Kyiv and in the central Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Mykolayiv regions as well as the southern Kherson region.
Russian forces fired a barrage of missiles at Kyiv earlier on Monday, sending panicked residents running for shelter in an unusual daytime attack on the Ukrainian capital following overnight strikes.
Debris has also fallen in Kyiv's Dnipro district, but not in a residential area, the Kyiv City Military Administration said.
An update on the explosion in Sviatoshyn district – the Kyiv City Military Administration says debris fell in the district and that emergency services are on site
“Data on destruction and casualties are being clarified,” the administration said on Telegram.
Updated
Here are photos from this morning’s attack, which is ongoing:
There has been another explosion, this time in Sviatoshyn district of Kyiv, the city’s mayor says.
“Explosion in Sviatoshyn district. All services go to the place,” Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
Euromaidan reports that more explosions have been heard in Kyiv.
Here is a photo of the fire in Holosiyvskyi – the photo was published by the Kyiv City Military Administration and shared on Twitter by Isobel Koshiw, a reporter formerly of this parish:
Apartment block in Kyiv’s Holosiyvskyi district, via Kyiv city authorities. Klitschko says residents are being evacuated. https://t.co/0USTLGXbu8 https://t.co/hRYLjeQi8r pic.twitter.com/029fjh9Hyd
— Isobel Koshiw (@IKoshiw) May 30, 2023
Updated
Residents have been evacuated from the multi-storey residential building in Holosiivskyi district, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko says.
“Residents are being evacuated in Holosiivskyi district, where there is a fire in a high-rise building. One person was injured,” Klitschko said.
Updated
Correspondents for the Globe and Mail and The Economist are awake in Kyiv, and trying to maintain a sense of humour through the strikes.
The Globe and Mail’s Mark MacKinnon says that locals have started referring to the nightly strikes as a “disco” – and The Economist’s Oliver Carroll says the next morning feels like exhaustion after a big night out:
And when every morning feels like you’ve just been on a huge night out. https://t.co/MUb72lkd3x
— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) May 30, 2023
More drones are headed for the capital, according to Euromaidan, which cites “monitoring channels”:
Monitoring channels say three more Shaheds are still in the air.
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) May 30, 2023
If you’re just joining us: Russia launched a fresh “massive” wave of attacks on Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday and air defence systems were engaging incoming targets, city officials said, as air raid sirens blared in several other regions.
“A massive attack!” Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. “Do not leave shelters.”
Kyiv’s military administration officials said that air defence systems were repelling the attacks. Falling debris hit several districts of the capital, including the historic Podil and Pecherskyi neighbourhoods.
Klitschko said that a 27-year-old woman was taken to hospital after sustaining injuries in southwestern Holosiivskyi district.
A multi-storey residential building and a house were on fire as a result of falling debris, authorities said.
Russia has repeatedly attacked the Ukrainian capital in May using a combination of drones and missiles, mostly at night in order to inflict psychological distress on people, Kyiv’s official said.
The Tuesday strikes were Russia’s 17th air assault on the capital this month and came after the city was attacked twice on Monday, including a rare daytime strike.
Fire in residential building
More on the fire in the multi-storey building – local authorities have confirmed that the fire is in a residential building and was caused by falling debris.
“As a result of falling debris in a multi-story residential building, windows were broken and doors were torn out in several apartments. Information about the destruction and victims is being clarified,” the Kyiv City Military Administration said on Telegram.
Updated
Fire in multi-storey building in Kyiv
A fire has broken out in a multi-storey building in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district, mayor Vitalii Klitschko has just said on Telegram:
“Fire in a multi-story building in Holosiivskyi district. Medics and rescuers are working on the spot,” Klitschko wrote.
Local news outlet Euromaidan has posted these photos (which have not been independently verified by the Guardian) of the house fire in Kyiv caused by falling missile debris:
Photo of a house on fire in Kyiv's Darnytskyi district due to drone debris crash.
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) May 30, 2023
📷https://t.co/gcev7KFevh pic.twitter.com/uqzsqJ1sfD
Britain’s ambassador to Ukraine, Dame Melinda Simmons, described the feelong of being in the capital amid the third strike in 24 hours.
“Jolted awake by noise in the sky. Problem with many broken nights is you can sleep through the siren. There’s no sleeping through an air raid though,” Simmons wrote on Twitter.
Jolted awake by noise in the sky. Problem with many broken nights is you can sleep through the siren. There’s no sleeping through an air raid though. Back in shelter, waiting for calm, grateful for 🇺🇦 air defence.
— Dame Melinda Simmons (@MelSimmonsFCDO) May 29, 2023
Journalist Liz Cookman says there is “smoke rising in the air” amid what Kyiv’s mayor called a “massive” attack.
💥It’s almost one hour later and the explosions are still ongoing. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko has called the attack “massive”, smoke rising in the air. https://t.co/pDpldx7tJp
— Liz Cookman (@liz_cookman) May 30, 2023
Three cars are on fire in Pechersk, Kyiv, because of falling debris, the city’s mayor, Vitalii Klitschko, said on Telegram a few minutes ago.
Updated
We’re seeing reports of more explosions heard in Kyiv – it is unclear whether these are as the result of air defences working.
The reports of explosions come as Kyiv authorities warned more Shahed drones were headed in the direction of the capital.
We’ll have more shortly.
House on fire in Kyiv as capital comes under third attack in 24 hours
Air alarms are still sounding in Kyiv, as Russia launches the third attack on Ukraine’s capital in 24 hours.
Falling debris has injured one person and caused a fire in a private house, Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said a few minutes ago.
A 27-year-old woman was wounded in Holosiivskyi District, he said, and the house on fire is in Darnytskyi District.
Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.
Russia is carrying out another round of strikes on Kyiv early on Tuesday morning, hours after day and nighttime attacks on Ukraine’s capital on Monday.
Air defence systems were working in Kyiv, the city’s military administration said early on Tuesday, after widespread reports of explosions.
We’ll have more from Kyiv shortly.
Here are the other key recent developments:
Eleven Russian missiles aimed at Kyiv were shot down by the Ukrainian air defence on Monday morning. One person was hospitalised as a result of the attacks. The local authority reported that the roof of a two-story building caught fire in the district as a result of falling debris, but that the fire was contained.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that using US-provided Patriot anti-missile systems ensured a 100% interception rate and would play a role in pushing forward against Russia’s invasion. “When Patriots in the hands of Ukrainians ensure a 100% interception rate of any Russian missile, terror will be defeated,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
Any peace settlement acceptable to Ukraine would include a demilitarised zone extending between 100km and 120km into Russia, the adviser to the head of the office of Ukraine’s president, Mykhailo Podolyak, has suggested. The key topic of the postwar settlement should be the establishment of safeguards to prevent a recurrence of aggression in the future, he said.
US president Joe Biden said that in a call on Monday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan repeated Ankara’s desire to buy F-16 fighter jets from the United States, while Biden responded that Washington was keen to see Ankara drop its objection to Sweden’s joining Nato. The exchange took place when Biden called Erdogan to congratulate him on his victory in Turkey’s presidential election on Sunday.
Two people were killed and eight were wounded in a Russian attack on the city of Toretsk on Monday morning, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region, said. Kyrylenko said Russian forces had used high-explosive aerial bombs in the attack at about 11:30 am local time which damaged a gas station and a multi-storey building in the city.
Russia’s interior ministry has put US senator Lindsey Graham on a wanted list after the Investigative Committee said it was opening a criminal probe into his comments on a Ukrainian state video. In an edited video released by the Ukrainian president’s office of Graham’s meeting with Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Friday, Graham was shown saying “the Russians are dying” and then saying US support was the “best money we’ve ever spent”. Russia said Graham should say publicly if he believes his words were taken out of context in the video edit.
Polish president, Andrzej Duda, said that he would sign a bill to allow a panel to investigate whether the opposition party Civic Platform (PO) allowed the country to be unduly influenced by Russia and as a result become too dependent on its fuel when it was in power. The PO party rejects the claims and says the law is designed to destroy support for the party in the lead up to the elections being held at the end of the year.
The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said that her government planned to increase spending on military aid to Ukraine by $2.6bn over this year and next year. Earlier this year, Denmark set up a $1b fund for military, civilian and business aid to Ukraine. Danmarks Radio, the Danish public-service broadcaster, reported that the new funds were earmarked for military aid.
Ukraine’s parliament has passed a bill that sanctions Iran for 50 years. The bill was put forward by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The bill will stop Iranian goods transiting through Ukraine and ban use of its airspace, as well as imposing trade, financial and technology sanctions against Iran and its citizens.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin “appears to have again indirectly undermined Russian president Vladimir Putin’s authority and regime”, the Institute for the Study of War wrote in its latest analysis of the conflict. The US-based thinktank based its assertion on the response given by Prigozhin to a journalist asking about Russian state media’s ban on any discussion of Wagner.
Foreign investors who left Russia after selling their businesses there between March 2022 and March 2023 withdrew about $36bn from the country, the state RIA news agency reports, citing analysis of data from the Central Bank.
The death toll from a Russian missile attack on a medical facility in Dnipro on Friday rose from two to four people, according to the region’s governor.
