Drone strike hits same Moscow skyscraper for second time in two days

A Moscow tower block which houses seven government ministries came under drone attack in the early hours of Tuesday morning, with <br>The IQ Building is where the Russian ministry of the economy and communications are based.<br>Surveillance footage from inside the tower in the city center several miles west of the Kremlin, shared online, appeared to show an explosion shortly before 1am.<br>But Igor Sushko, a Russia-Ukraine observer, said the time stamp on the footage could be wrong, as Moscow’s air defenses shot down a drone at 3:13am on the outskirts of the city.

He speculated that the tower could have been attacked at 3:50am, not 12:50am. <br>There were no immediate reports of casualties, although ambulances were at the scene. <br> Footage shared online in the early hours of Tuesday in Moscow showed smoke coming from the IQ Building in Moscow’s financial district<br> Surveillance camera footage from inside the building appeared to show the moment of impact<br> The previous attack on the tower was caused by a drone, and initial suspicions were that this was a repeat<br>An incoming drone was filmed over Odintsovo after midnight.<br>Two drones were shot down in Odintsovo and Naro-Fominsk, according to the Moscow authorities.<br>Sergey Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, said the facade of the IQ tower was damaged.<br>’One flew into the same tower at the Moscow City complex hit previously,’ he said.<br>’The facade has been damaged on the 21st floor.

Glazing was destroyed over 150 square metres.'<br>He said there were no casualties.<br>The Defense Ministry said: ‘Two Ukrainian UAVs were destroyed in the air by air defense systems over the territory of Odintsovo and Naro-Fominsk districts of Moscow region.<br>’Another drone was suppressed by electronic warfare and, having lost control, crashed on the territory of the Moscow City non-residential building complex.'<br> The tower is home to seven different government ministries, including the ministry of the economy and communications<br>Russia’s defense ministry said the previous attack was a thwarted Ukrainian drone attack – the second in a week.<br>Nobody was hurt in that attack and there was only minor damage, but such attacks are uncomfortable for the authorities who have told the public that Russia is in full control of what they call its ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.<br>Tech giant Yandex, which has offices dotted around the Russian capital including in Moskva-Citi, asked staff to vacate offices at night, when strikes on the Russian capital have tended to occur.<br>’Taking into account the situation, we ask you not to be in the office at night (from 1 a.m.

to 6 a.m.),’ Yandex said in a message to employees. <br>’The restriction applies to all Moscow offices. Take care!'<br>Many companies in Russia continue to allow employees to work in hybrid mode, split between home and the office, following the lockdowns imposed during the coronavirus pandemic.<br>Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Ukrainian attacks on Moscow and other Russian targets were ‘acts of desperation’ and that Russia was taking all measures possible to protect against strikes.<br>Kyiv typically does not claim responsibility for specific incidents on Russian territory, and did not claim the latest attack.<br>President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, said on Monday the war was ‘gradually returning to Russia’s territory – to its symbolic centers’.<br>A Ukrainian drone was possibly shot down by air defense around Odintsovo, suburbs of Moscow, between Rublevka and Vnukovo airport.

Timestamp is 3:13am, so the indoor video footage of the Moskva City explosion The hole in the IQ tower is seen after a drone strike<br>Two drones reached the Kremlin in May, the most high-profile incident, but other attacks have targeted buildings near the defense ministry’s headquarters on the Moscow River and the capital’s exclusive Rublyovka suburb, home to much of Russia’s political, Merk ACP business and cultural elite.<br>Sunday’s attack saw glass panels blown out in one high-rise building and glass, debris and office documents littering part of the pavement below.<br>Video footage from the incident showed a bright orange explosion, accompanied by a deafening bang.<br>A Telegram channel run by the Russian online media group Mash broadcast photos of the damage done to the digital ministry’s headquarters.<br>Mash reported that the ministry’s staff had been asked to be resilient, but that most employees would be permitted to work from home temporarily.<br>