In the early hours of Monday morning, a strike caused a tower next to Russia’s Defence Ministry to catch fire.
Authorities in Moscow claim that Ukraine launched a “terrorist attack” after drones struck two non-residential facilities there.
Video showed a high-rise’s top blazing, with grey smoke rising into the sky.
Mayor of the capital Sergei Sobyanin confirmed no one was injured in the incident as the military jammed both drones, forcing them to crash.
One fell on Komsomolsky Prospekt near the city centre, close to the main defence ministry building, Russian media reported.
Another hit an office building in southern Moscow, gutting its upper floors, with residents nearby awoken by ‘everything shaking’.
But it is unclear if the drones hit the buildings when they were brought down, or whether they were targeting the buildings.
‘On the morning of July 24, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to launch a terrorist attack using two unmanned aerial vehicles against facilities on the territory of the city of Moscow was thwarted,’ the ministry said on Telegram.
‘Two Ukrainian UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) were suppressed by electronic warfare means and crashed.’
Christo Grozev, Bulgarian investigator at Bellingcat, stressed that if Ukraine hit the building, the ‘symbolic damage to MoD/GRU will be very significant’.
He shared a video on Twitter showing the defence building had suffered at least some damage, with windows appearing to be shot out.
Ukrainian authorities did not immediately claim responsibility for the strike, which was the second drone attack on the Russian capital this month.