Russia says five drones shot down one day after market attack

Russia said it shot down five Ukrainian drones early Thursday, just one day after a Russian missile attack struck a market in eastern Ukraine, killing at least 17 people. 

Five drones were shot down over three regions overnight, including one attempting to strike Moscow, officials said. No injuries were reported. 

Air defense forces thwarted an attempted drone strike on Moscow in the Ramensky urban district, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in a Telegram post. Sobyanin said no damage or casualties were reported in the fall of the wreckage. 

Two more drones were shot down in the southern region of Rostov, which borders Ukraine, regional Gov. Vasily Golubev said on social media. Multiple cars and windows were damaged from the falling debris, he said. Some residents evacuated their apartments after the attack but have since been allowed to return.

In the Bryansk region, which also borders Ukraine, an additional two drones were shot down with debris damaging a railway station and multiple cars, according to regional Gov. Alexander Bogomaz. No casualties were reported. 

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Ukraine was responsible for the attacks, according to The Associated Press, though Ukraine does not take credit for strikes inside of Russia. 

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military claimed it shot down 25 of 33 drones it said were launched by Russia overnight, most in the Odesa region, a critical spot for Ukraine’s grain export infrastructure.

The series of drone strikes came on the heels of a Russian missile attack at a market in the heart of the city of Kostiantynivka, in the eastern Donetsk region still held by Ukraine. The strike killed at least 17 people, wounded another 32 and followed a series of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s grain export infrastructure.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack showed “utter inhumanity” in a Telegram post Wednesday. 

“A regular market. Shops. A pharmacy. People who did nothing wrong,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram. “Unfortunately, the number of casualties and the injured may rise. My condolences to all who have lost loved ones! This Russian evil must be defeated as soon as possible.”

During his visit to Ukraine Thursday, State Secretary Antony Blinken toured the damage in Kostiantynivka and said the death and destruction was “what Ukrainians are living with every day,” according to the AP.

Blinken’s trip to Kyiv aims to show the United States’s “unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, territorial integrity and democracy,” according to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. 

The Associated Press contributed.