MOSCOW, May 30, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused 
Kyiv of seeking to "frighten" Russians after drones hit Moscow high-rises in 
the first such attack since the beginning of the Kremlin's assault on 
Ukraine.

As drones struck in and around Moscow, Russian drones targeted Kyiv for a 
third straight day while Ukraine gears up for a major offensive against 
Russian forces.

Officials said no one was seriously injured in Moscow and there was only 
"minor" damage to residential buildings but some ordinary people said they 
never thought the Russian capital could be hit in this way.

"I somehow thought that all of this was somewhere far away, that this would 
not affect us, and suddenly this has become very close," pensioner Tatyana 
Kalinina told AFP in southwest Moscow near one of the damaged residential 
buildings.

The Russian defence ministry said that eight drones were used in the attack, 
adding that five of them were downed and three disabled.

Putin said that Moscow's air defence had worked in a satisfactory manner, 
noting that the attacks were Kyiv's "response" to a Russian strike on 
Ukraine's army intelligence headquarters.

He said Ukraine was trying to "frighten" Russians.

"We have spoken about hitting command centres (in Ukraine)," the Russian 
president said.

- 'Frighten Russia' -

"In response, the Kyiv regime has chosen a different path, the path of trying 
to frighten Russia, frighten the citizens of Russia and of strikes on 
residential buildings."

Of the three drones that hit residential buildings, two crashed into high-
rises located in Moscow's affluent southwest, while a third damaged a 
residential building in a suburb.

The other drones fell outside Moscow. Some of the debris was found around 15 
kilometres (nine miles) from Putin's Novo-Ogaryovo residence.

One video shared on social media showed an explosion followed by a column of 
smoke rising into the sky.

This month two drones were intercepted over the Kremlin, but Tuesday's 
attacks were the first time that unmanned aerial vehicles hit residential 
areas of Moscow, hundreds of kilometres from the front lines in Ukraine.

The raids are likely to be seen as a major embarrassment for the Kremlin, 
which has gone to great lengths to say the protracted conflict in Ukraine 
does not pose a threat to Russians.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, 
said Kyiv had "no direct relation" to the attacks.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said two people had sought medical assistance 
but "no one has suffered serious injuries".

- 'No panic' -

The residents of buildings damaged in the strikes were briefly evacuated.

On Profsoyuznaya Street, a residential building with a blown-out window was 
cordoned off by police but the atmosphere was calm, with children playing 
outside and locals walking their dogs, an AFP correspondent said.

Some of the residents were moved to a nearby school, where they drank tea and 
watched a Soviet-era movie.

Valentin Yemelyanov, a 50-year-old IT worker, who lives on the same street 
but closer towards the centre of Moscow, said there was "no fear or panic".

"The damage is minimal," he told AFP. He said he was "not surprised" by the 
drone attack, given the escalation of the conflict. "It is obvious that 
things are going this way."

Muscovites told Russian journalists that a drone had also crashed into an 
apartment on the 14th floor of a high-rise on Leninsky Prospekt but did not 
explode.

In the Moscow suburbs, Maxim, a 40-year-old customs officer, said loud noises 
woke him and his wife at 4:00 am (0100 GMT). He said he had a number of 
security-related questions for the authorities including "why Russia's 
borders are still open."

- 'Downplaying attacks'-

Political analyst Tatyana Stanovaya said it was astonishing to see that 
Russian authorities were "downplaying the significance of drone attacks on 
Russian cities."

Since the start of Russia's assault on Ukraine, drone attacks have hit 
targets outside Moscow, including military installations located far from the 
front.

Ukraine said it had downed 29 out of 31 drones, mainly over Kyiv and the Kyiv 
region in the latest Russian barrage -- the third on the Ukrainian capital in 
24 hours.

On Monday, Russia fired a barrage of missiles at Kyiv, sending panicked 
residents running for shelter in an unusual daytime attack following 
overnight strikes.

Predictably, many in Ukraine gloated over the drone attacks in Moscow.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said he could not understand why residents of 
Moscow continued to live peacefully when Russian forces are "terrorising" the 
capital of Ukraine.

Muscovites, he said, should feel "what it means to live in the conditions 
that Kyiv has lived in for the past one and a half years."

Kyiv has been preparing a counteroffensive, although its timing and focus 
have been the subject of months of speculation.