Russia accuses Ukraine of 'using 9/11 tactics' in alleged Moscow drone attack
Footage shows the aftermath of the alleged drone strike in Moscow
Russia has accused Ukraine of using the same methods as Al-Qaeda did in the 9/11 Twin Tower attacks after allegedly mounting a drone strike on a Moscow building for the second time in three days.
The same building in Moscow city centre was damaged in a similar attack on Sunday.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the Soloviev Live TV channel: "Let's take a look at another example: the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. It caused an enormous number of casualties but the methods were the same.
"The Moscow City district is a civilian site, which only hosts offices and a business centre, along with living quarters - a great number of residential apartments - as well as civilian administrative buildings that have nothing to do with the military."
She added: "We are seeing the same picture now, as if it is repeating itself."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said over the weekend “the war is gradually coming back to Russian territory", but stopped short of taking responsibility for the attacks.
The Russian Defence Ministry said in the early hours of Tuesday it shot down two Ukrainian drones outside Moscow and jammed another, sending it crashing into a skyscraper in Moscow's business hub and damaging the outside of the building - in what the country's Ministry of Defense has labeled a “terrorist attack.”
IQ-Quarter, located 4.5 miles from the Kremlin, contains the offices of several government agencies, including, reportedly, the headquarters of Russia's Ministry for Economic Development.
It wasn’t clear why the same building was hit twice in a row. In both incidents, the Russian military said the drones that hit the skyscraper were jammed before crashing.
Asked about how protected the Russian capital is, given that supposedly jammed drones hit the same building, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov redirected the question to the Defense Ministry, saying only that “the threat exists and measures are being taken.”
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there were no casualties after Tuesday's incident.
Zelenskyy's advisor Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted that Moscow “is rapidly getting used to a full-fledged war, which, in turn, will soon finally move to the territory of the ‘authors of the war’ to collect all their debts,” without confirming or denying Kyiv's involvement in the attack.
The Russian military also said that Kyiv's forces tried to attack two of its war ships in the Black Sea overnight, using maritime drones.
Three drones targeted two patrol vessels 200 miles southwest of the Russian-controlled city of Sevastopol on the annexed Crimean peninsula, the Defence Ministry reported.
All three drones were destroyed, the report said.
Margarita Simonyan, chief editor of the state-funded TV channel RT, said in a social media post that “a drone hitting the same tower for the second time in a row, where three federal ministries are located, at least requires explaining the comments that the electronic warfare downed them all.”
The attacks on Moscow and Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, follow a deadly Russian missile strike on Kryvyi Rih, a city in central Ukraine and Zelenskyy's hometown.
Monday's strike partially destroyed a residential building and killed at least six people, wounding dozens more.
Overnight, Russian forces attacked Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, with Iranian-made Shahed drones, according to Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov.
One drone struck a three-story building at an educational institution in the Saltivka district, partially destroying the top two floors of the building, as well as the roof. No people were inside the building at the time of the attack.
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