Russian air defense systems shot down a total of four Ukrainian drones in the early hours of the morning, two in the airspace west of the capital Moscow, the mayor of the Russian capital Sergei Sabianin and the Ministry of Defense said.

According to the elected official, two drones were shot down, the first in the city of Krasnagorsk, 20 kilometers northwest of the Kremlin, the second in the community of Chasti, 50 kilometers southwest of the center of Moscow.

Immediate assistance and emergency response services are operating on the ground, Mr Sabianin added via Telegram.

A Reuters news agency reporter near Chasti heard four explosions after 03:00 (local and Greek time).

At the same time, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that two more Ukrainian UAVs were shot down in the Bryansk region, not far from the Russian-Ukrainian border.

“An attempt by the Kiev regime to commit terrorist acts using unmanned aerial vehicles was foiled,” the Defense Ministry said, also via Telegram.

Ukrainian raids by UAVs and USVs on Russian territory have multiplied in recent months. Moscow, 500 kilometers from the border of the two countries, and the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, are most often targeted.

Earlier, Moscow’s three largest airports suspended all arrivals and departures, according to Russian state news agency TASS. Later, the agency reported that planes resumed landing at all three airports, Vnukova, Sheremetyava and Damadiedava.

Russian authorities said they had repelled a series of attacks by Ukrainian remote-controlled drones deep into Russia on Monday, in the Kaluga region and near Moscow. They did not speak of casualties, nor of material damage.

In late July and early August, other Ukrainian UAVs were destroyed in a sector of Moscow where skyscrapers are located and many businesses and public institutions are based, causing minor material damage to the facades of two skyscrapers.

In May, two Ukrainian drones were destroyed over the Kremlin and others crashed into residential buildings in Moscow.

On August 5, a Ukrainian official announced that Ukraine’s armed forces would escalate drone strikes against Russian targets.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his satisfaction at the end of July because the war is “reaching the territory of Russia”.