Russia-Ukraine war live: two drones shot down near Moscow, says Russia, in latest attack on capital | Ukraine #RussiaUkraine #war #live #drones #shot #Moscow #Russia #latest #attack #capital #Ukraine

In case you missed this last night: Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of targeting rescue workers during the attack on Pokrovsk.

Moscow struck residential buildings with two consecutive missiles, with Ukrainian officials saying that the first one was aimed at drawing rescue workers to the scene and the second one at wounding or killing them.

The strikes Monday evening in the downtown district of the city of Pokrovsk killed at least nine people, Zelenskiy said, including an emergency official. The number of injured climbed to 82, most of them police officers, emergency workers and soldiers who rushed to assist residents, Ukrainian officials said.

Emergency crews were still removing rubble on Tuesday. The Iskander missiles, which have an advanced guidance system that increases their accuracy, hit within 40 minutes of each other, according to Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said.

Until a series of drone attacks in recent months, Moscow, Russia’s capital, had not been a target during the conflict, AFP reports.

On July 30, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that “war” was coming to Russia, and in particular, to the country’s “symbolic centres and military bases”.

An office block in the capital’s main business district was recently struck twice within days by debris from a downed drone attack. Russia’s defence ministry said Thursday it had downed seven drones – also near Kaluga, which is less than 200 kilometres (124 miles) southwest of Moscow.

Two Ukrainian combat drones headed for Moscow were shot down, Russian officials said on Wednesday, the latest attack targeting the capital.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram, “Two combat drones’ attempt to fly into the city was recorded. Both were shot down by air defence.”

Emergency services were at the scene, he said, but he did not list any casualties.

He said one drone was downed in the Domodedovo area on the southern outskirts of the city, while the second was shot down in the Minsk highway area, west of the capital.

“Air defence destroyed two UAVs,” the Russia’s defence ministry said, adding there were no reported casualties or damage.

Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.

Our top story this morning: two Ukrainian combat drones headed for Moscow were shot down, Russian officials said on Wednesday.

The attempted attack comes a day after the death toll from strikes on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk rose to nine. The attack is also the latest in series of drone attacks near Moscow, after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that the war was “coming to Russia”.

“Two combat drones’ attempt to fly into the city was recorded. Both were shot down by air defence,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram.

He said one drone was downed in the Domodedovo area on the southern outskirts of the city, while the second was shot down in the Minsk highway area, west of the capital. Kyiv is yet to comment, but Ukraine rarely claims responsibility for attacks on Russia.

We’ll have more shortly.

Elsewhere meanwhile:

• Ukrainian officials on Tuesday accused the Kremlin’s forces of targeting rescue workers by hitting residential buildings with two consecutive missiles – the first one to draw crews to the scene and the second one to wound or kill them. The strikes on Monday evening in the downtown district of the city of Pokrovsk killed nine people and wounded more than 80 others, Zelenskiy said in his nightly address. According to Ukrainian authorities, one of those killed was an emergency official, and most of those wounded were police officers, emergency workers and soldiers who rushed to assist residents.

• Regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko put the number of wounded at 81, including 39 civilians, 31 policemen, seven employees of the state emergency service and four military personnel. Two children were among those injured. Donetsk is one of the regions of Ukraine that Russia partially occupies and claimed to unilaterally annexe late in 2022.

• Dozens of secondhand Leopard 1 tanks that once belonged to Belgium have been bought by another European country for Ukrainian forces fighting Russia’s invasion, the arms trader who did the deal said on Tuesday. It has been reported that German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall is the buyer and intends to prepare most of them for export to Ukraine. The company and the German defence ministry did not comment.

• Ukrainian special services have foiled an attempt by Russian hackers to penetrate the Ukrainian armed forces’ combat information system, the SBU security service said on Tuesday. “As a result of complex measures, SBU exposed and blocked the illegal actions of Russian hackers who tried to penetrate Ukrainian military networks and organise intelligence gathering,” Reuters reported the SBU as saying.

• Roman Starovoyt, governor of Kursk in Russia, has claimed a Ukraine “kamikaze” drone fell at the Gornalsky St Nicholas monastery in the region, injuring a child.

• Zelenskiy said in a video published on Tuesday that Ukraine would fight back against Russia in the Black Sea to ensure its waters were not blockaded and it could import and export grain and other goods. The comments, published on the president’s website, come days after Ukrainian maritime drones packed with explosives damaged a Russian warship near a major Russian port and struck a Russian tanker.

• Reuters has reported that dozens of ships are backed up around critical Danube arteries close to Ukraine’s river gateways days after Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian ports. Shipping data showed at least 30 ships anchored around Musura Bay in the Black Sea, which leads into a channel that links up with Izmail further along the waterway.