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Ukrainian drones shot down near Moscow

Says Russia; EU country buys dozens of second-hand Leopard tanks from Belgian trader for Kyiv
REUTERS, Moscow
Russia said it had shot down two Ukrainian drones near Moscow yesterday, one near a major airport to the south of the city and one to the west of the capital.
“An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack with unmanned aerial vehicles was prevented over the territory of the Moscow region,” the defence ministry said. “Two UAVs were destroyed by air defences.”
One was shot down near Domodedovo, where one of Russia’s biggest international airports is located, and another near the Minsk motorway, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
Drone air strikes deep inside Russia have increased since a drone was destroyed over the Kremlin in early May. Civilian areas of the capital were hit later in May and a Moscow business district was targeted twice in three days earlier this month.
In recent days, Ukrainian remotely piloted boats, also referred to as drones, have attacked a Russian fuel tanker and a navy base at Russia’s Novorossiysk port on the Black Sea.
In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that the revival of a deal with Russia to allow Ukrainian grain exports, brokered by Ankara and the UN, “depends on Western countries which must keep their promises”.
“I think a solution can be found,” Erdogan added, referring to a recent telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who refused to extend the accord.
Meanwhile, dozens of second-hand Leopard 1 tanks that once belonged to Belgium have been bought by another European country for Ukrainian forces fighting Russia’s invasion, the arms trader who did the deal said Tuesday.
The German-made Leopards were at the centre of a public spat earlier this year after Belgian Defence Minister Ludivine Dedonder said the government had explored buying back tanks to send to Ukraine but had been quoted unreasonable prices.
The clash highlighted a predicament faced by Western governments trying find weapons for Ukraine after more than a year of intense warfare – arms they discarded as obsolete are now in high demand, and often owned by private companies.
Freddy Versluys, CEO of defence company OIP Land Systems, bought the tanks from the Belgian government more than five years ago.
He told Reuters he had now sold all 50 tanks to another European government, which he could not name due to a confidentiality clause. He said he also could not disclose the price.
In Russia, a blast rocked an optical-mechanical factory in the town of Sergiev Posad, 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Moscow, yesterday, injuring at least 52 people, TASS cited emergency services as saying.
It said the blast appeared to have occurred in a warehouse containing pyrotechnic equipment. The popular online news channel Mash said the warehouse had been rented by a pyrotechnics firm.
Unverified footage on social media showed a huge column of smoke, and high-rise buildings with windows blown out. The facility was being evacuated, TASS said.
In Donetsk, a child was killed and two people were injured when a Ukrainian artillery shell hit a two-storey building, the Russian-appointed head of the region, Denis Pushilin, said yesterday on his Telegram channel.
The Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine had been partly under the control of pro-Russian separatists since 2014 until Moscow announced last year that it was annexing the province.
Russia, which early last year launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine that it calls a “special military operation”, says Ukrainian forces shell the Russian-controlled parts of the Donetsk region on a daily basis.
Separately, the Interfax news agency cited Russian-appointed officials in Ukraine’s southerly Zaporizhzhia region as saying four civilians had been killed and two wounded by Ukrainian shelling in the village of Trudove, about 15 km (9 miles) east of the town of Tokmak.