THE Russia announced a series of drone strikes on its territory yesterday, Saturday, which killed at least one person in an area bordering Ukraine and which again forced the temporary closure of three major airports serving the Russian capital.

The mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin said that air defense systems shot down an unmanned aircraft (drone) over Istra, in the Moscow region, about 50 kilometers west of the Kremlin.

Authorities at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports suspended flights for a few hours, Russian news agency TASS reported.

One man was killed by shrapnel from a drone on his periphery Belgorodon the border with Ukraine, in the southwestern part of Russia, according to a post by its governor Vyacheslav Gladkov on the Telegram messaging app.

According to him, six people were injured by the shelling by Ukrainian forces of the village of Urazovo, where 16 houses were damaged.

The Russian Air Force shot down a drone launched by Ukraine last night over its territory Bryanskon the border with Ukraine, in the western part of Russia, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz said Ukrainian forces shelled the village of Kirilovka near the border, damaging four houses. He did not mention any casualties from either incident in the relevant post he made on Telegram.

Reuters has not been able to independently verify this information.

Ukraine has so far not commented on the information about these attacks. The Kyiv it has rarely publicly claimed responsibility for attacks inside the territory of Russia, which invaded its territory just over 18 months ago.

Cross-border shelling and drone attacks in southern Russia have been frequent for many months, but the launching of drones targeting Moscow is a recent development.

Two had been launched against him Kremlin in early May. Since then, the Russian capital’s business district has been hit a few times and other areas of Moscow and its wider region have also been targeted.

While they have caused no deaths or serious damage in the Russian capital, the drone attacks have brought the war home to Muscovites, undermining the Kremlin’s claims that its “special military operation” in Ukraine is proceeding according to plan.