Drone Crashes in Failed Attack Southeast of Moscow, Regional Governor Says

Recruits carry their weapons during a military training at a shooting range in the Krasnodar region, southern Russia (AP)
Recruits carry their weapons during a military training at a shooting range in the Krasnodar region, southern Russia (AP)
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Drone Crashes in Failed Attack Southeast of Moscow, Regional Governor Says

Recruits carry their weapons during a military training at a shooting range in the Krasnodar region, southern Russia (AP)
Recruits carry their weapons during a military training at a shooting range in the Krasnodar region, southern Russia (AP)

A drone crashed near a natural gas distribution station southeast of Moscow on Tuesday in an apparent failed attack 110 km (68 miles) from the center of the Russian capital, the regional governor said.

Andrei Vorobyov reported the incident near the town of Kolomna shortly after the Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of attempting two drone strikes in southern Russia overnight, Reuters said.

Ukraine does not publicly claim responsibility for attacks inside Russia. If it was behind the Kolomna incident, it would be its closest attempted drone strike to the Russian capital since Russia invaded Ukraine just over a year ago.

Postings on Russian social media showed the grey metal wreckage of a drone lying in a snowdrift by the edge of a wood said to be near Kolomna. Reuters could not immediately verify the images.

Vorobyov said the drone appeared to have been intended to strike a "civil infrastructure facility" but there was no damage. He said the FSB security agency was dealing with the situation and there was no danger to residents.

Earlier, the Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of launching attack drones towards civil infrastructure targets in the southern regions of Krasnodar and Adygea.

It said its anti-drone defense systems had caused the drones to veer off course and miss their targets.

"Both drones lost control and deviated from their flight paths. One fell into a field, the other, deviating from its trajectory, did not harm the intended target," it said.

There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian authorities. Russian state news agencies had earlier reported a fire at an oil depot in the Krasnodar region, around 240 km (150 miles) southeast of the Crimean peninsula, after a drone was spotted flying overhead.

The main civilian airport of Russia's second city, St Petersburg, suspended all flights for an hour on Tuesday morning for what the Defense Ministry said were exercises involving fighter jets in Russia's western air space.

In early December, Russia said three military personnel had been killed in alleged Ukrainian drone attacks on two air bases hundreds of miles from the front lines in Ukraine.

On Dec. 26, it said it had shot down another Ukrainian drone close to one of the air bases - near the city of Saratov, where Russian strategic nuclear bombers are based - and that three more air force personnel had been killed.



Israel Launches Communications Satellite from Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
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Israel Launches Communications Satellite from Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP

Israel on Sunday said it had launched a new national communications satellite on board a SpaceX rocket from the United States.

The Dror 1 satellite was blasted into orbit on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and the foreign ministry said.

"This $200 million 'smartphone in space' will power Israel's strategic and civilian communications for 15 years," the ministry wrote on X.

Accompanying video footage showed the reusable, two-stage rocket lift off into the night sky. SpaceX said the launch happened at 1:04 am in Florida (0504 GMT Sunday).

IAI, which called the launch "a historic leap for Israeli space technology", said when it announced the project to develop and build Dror 1 that it was "the most advanced communication satellite ever built in Israel".

In September 2016, an unmanned Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a test in Florida, destroying Israel's Amos-6 communications satellite, which was estimated to have cost between $200 and 300 million.