Dueling attacks on capitals: Russia and Ukraine say they repelled air assaults on Moscow and Kyiv

Authorities in Moscow said the Russian capital was attacked by drones Tuesday. Separately, Russia launched a pre-dawn air raid on Ukraine‘s capital, killing at least one person and again sending Kyiv’s residents scrambling into shelters to escape a relentless wave of daylight and nighttime bombardments, Ukrainian officials said.

“This morning the Kyiv regime carried out a terrorist attack with drones on targets in the city of Moscow. Eight drones were used in the attack. All of the enemy drones were downed,” Russia’s defense ministry said on social media Tuesday.

And Ukraine’s air force said on social media that, “Between 11:30 pm and 4:30 am, Russian occupation troops attacked Ukraine” with 31 Shahed drones, 29 of which were shot down, “almost all of them near the capital and in the Kyiv skies” in Russia’s third attack on the capital in the past 24 hours.

In Moscow, residents reported hearing explosions and Mayor Sergei Sobyanin later confirmed there had been a drone attack.

Sobyanin said in a Telegram post that the attack caused “insignificant damage” to several buildings. Two people received medical attention for unspecified injuries but did not need hospitalization, he said.

Residents of two buildings damaged in the attack were evacuated, Sobyanin said.

Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the wider Moscow region, later said several drones were “shot down on the approach to Moscow.”

There was no immediate comment on the attacks from Ukrainian officials.

It was the second reported attack on Moscow: Authorities said two drones targeted the Kremlin earlier this month in what was labeled an attempt on President Vladimir Putin’s life.

In the attacks overnight on Kyiv, one person died and three were injured when a high-rise building in the Holosiiv district caught fire. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the blaze but frequently, the falling debris from drones being hit and the interceptor missiles have caused damage on the ground.

The building’s upper two floors were destroyed and there may be people under the rubble, the Kyiv Military Administration said. More than 20 people were evacuated.

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Resident Valeriya Oreshko told The Associated Press in the aftermath 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.

Oksana, who only gave her first name, said the 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 the capital, 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.

The series of attacks that began Sunday included a rare daylight attack Monday that left puffs of white smoke in the blue skies.

On that day, Russian forces fired 11 ballistic and cruise missiles at Kyiv at about 11:30 a.m., according to Ukraine’s chief of staff, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. All of them were shot down, he said.

Debris from the intercepted missiles fell in Kyiv’s central and northern districts during the morning, landing in the middle of traffic on a city road and also starting a fire on the roof of a building, the Kyiv military administration said. At least one civilian was reported hurt.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it launched a series of strikes early Monday targeting Ukrainian air bases with precision long-range air-launched missiles. The strikes destroyed command posts, radars, aircraft and ammunition stockpiles, it claimed. It didn’t say anything about hitting cities or other civilian areas.

Oleksandr Ruvin, Kiyv’s chief forensic investigator, told CBS News that as Ukraine prepares for a looming counteroffensive, Russia appears to be targeting his country’s air defense network, and those attacks have become more frequent.