A drone that was likely targeting civilian infrastructure crashed near Moscow on Tuesday, a regional official said, after the defence ministry reported downing two Ukrainian drones in southern Russia.
The
reported incidents are the latest in a series of suspected drone attacks in
recent months inside Russia -- sometimes far from the border with Ukraine --
that Moscow has blamed on Kyiv.
"As
for the incident with the crash of a UAV in district of Kolomna... the target
was probably a civilian infrastructure facility, which was not damaged,"
Moscow regional governor Andrei Vorobyov said in a statement, referring to
unmanned aerial vehicles.
"There
are no casualties or damage on the ground. The FSB (security services) and
other competent authorities are investigating," Vorobyov said.
Authorities
have not specified what infrastructure may have been targeted, but Russian
energy giant Gazprom operates a facility near the village of Gubastovo, where
the drone crashed.
Gazprom
told Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti that its operations in the
Kolomna region were operating uninterrupted.
"There
were no emergencies due to the drone crash," its press service said in
comments carried by RIA Novosti.
Vorobyov,
the Moscow regional governor, gave his statement shortly after the defence
ministry said Russian forces had downed two Ukrainian drones in southern
Russia.
"The
Kyiv regime attempted to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to attack civilian
infrastructure in the Krasnodar region and the Adygea Republic. The UAVs were
neutralised by electronic warfare units," it said.
Moscow
has accused Ukraine of being behind several drone attacks on Russian military
infrastructure inside the country.
This
includes drone attacks on the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014,
and on the border region of Belgorod.
Russia
said in December that it downed several drones near Engels, a base for
strategic Russian aircraft located hundreds of kilometres from Ukraine's
border.
Pictures
in January appeared to show Pantsir defence systems installed on the Russian
defence ministry and one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's residences, but
the Kremlin refused to comment.