Ukrainian military drone shot down by Russia 'after trying to hit gas station'

28 February 2023 , 16:47

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Photos of the wreckage suggested it was a UJ-22 Airborne (Image: Twitter)

A Ukrainian military drone attempted to strike a gas facility close to Russia's capital, a Kremlin official has claimed.

Russian media said that the drone fell just metres from a gas distribution station owned by the state-controlled energy giant Gazprom around 60 miles away from Moscow.

Photos of the wreckage suggested it was a UJ-22 Airborne manufactured by Ukraine’s Ukrjet company.

It would make this the first known attempt by Ukrainian forces to target the Russian capital since the start of the war.

"There are no casualties and no destruction on the ground," Andrei Vorobiov, the governor of the Moscow Oblast, said on Telegram.

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Russia's President Vladimir Putin (Kremlin Pool/UPI/REX/Shutterstock)

“Soon Putin might get very afraid to show himself in public as drones can reach far distances,” Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, said.

However, Ukraine does not publicly claim responsibility for attacks inside Russia.

Ukrjet claims the drone can fly 500 miles and is fitted with an interchangeable payload.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered officials to tighten control of the border with Ukraine after the spate of drone attacks that Russian authorities blamed on Kyiv.

While Putin didn’t refer to any specific attacks in a speech in the Russian capital, his comments came hours after drone attacks targeted several areas in southern and western Russia and authorities closed the airspace over St. Petersburg in response to what some reports said was a drone.

Ukrainian soldiers fire anti-tank missile system (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The Russian defence ministry also claimed that its forces had destroyed Ukrainian drones as they attempted to attack civilian infrastructure in the southern Krasnodar region and the Adygea Republic, which are both close to Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials have not taken responsibility but emphasised Ukraine’s right to hit any target in Russia following the full-scale invasion that began last year.

While some Russian commentators described the drone attacks as an attempt by Ukraine to showcase its capability to strike areas deep behind the lines, foment tensions in Russia and rally the Ukrainian public, some Russian war bloggers described the raids as a possible rehearsal of a bigger, more ambitious attack.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, at least two civilians were killed by renewed Russian shelling in the southern city of Kherson and surrounding villages today and 17 more were wounded in fighting over the previous 24 hours.

Rachel Hagan