Several Ukrainian drones intercepted overnight just 2 miles away from Kremlin, Russia says
LONDON -- Several Ukrainian drones were intercepted and destroyed over Moscow and the Moscow region overnight, with some coming as close as two miles away from the Kremlin, Russian officials said.
According to Russian authorities, seven drones were intercepted overnight over Moscow.
While no casualties have been reported, it is the second Ukrainian attack on Moscow in a week.
The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, claimed Russian air defense forces repelled an attack on the capital by four drones while Krasnodar's governor confirmed a fire is currently burning following a strike on Tuapse oil refinery.
Moscow's governor Andrey Vorobyov confirmed on Telegram that a drone was shot down in the Yuzhnaya Bitsa microdistrict, and that its wreckage fell onto an unoccupied multi-story building under construction.
CCTV from a shop on Yuzhnyy Bul'var captured the moment of the blast in Bitsa, Yeninsky district Moscow, as car alarms can be heard in the aftermath.
Krasnodar's Governor Veniamin Kondratyev confirmed on Telegram on Friday that a fire has spread to an area of more than 1,000 square meters following a Ukrainian strike on an oil refinery in Tuapse.
Video recorded by a train passenger pulling into Tuapse station shows flames engulfing the oil refinery.
"It's near Rosneft", "it's oil", "it's an oil refinery", a voice can be heard exclaiming in Russian.
All this comes as Trump's Middle East envoy landed in Moscow on Thursday morning for discussions on the proposed 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine -- a step leaders in Kyiv and Washington, D.C., hope will facilitate a larger peace deal to end Russia's three-year-old invasion of its neighbor.
Steve Witkoff's trip is "part of our continued efforts to press Russia to agree to a ceasefire and stop its brutal war against Ukraine," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a Wednesday briefing.
The ceasefire proposal is "phase one" of the peace process, Trump said, noting that discussions on a final agreement have touched on who will get certain pieces of land and a "very big power plant."
U.S. and Ukrainian officials agreed to a total 30-day ceasefire during talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, earlier this week. The ball is now "truly in their court," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said of Russia following the talks in Jeddah.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Putin's comments "very predictable" and "manipulative" in his Thursday evening address.
"Putin, of course, is afraid to tell President Trump directly that he wants to continue this war, wants to kill Ukrainians. And that is why they there, in Moscow, are setting the idea of silence with such preconditions that nothing will work out at all or that it will not work out for as long as possible," Zelenskyy said. "Putin often does this -- he does not say 'no' directly, but does so in a way that practically only delays everything and makes normal decisions impossible. We believe that all this is now -- another Russian manipulation."
ABC News' Helena Skinner contributed to this report.
