Russian military blames Ukraine for foiled drone attack on Moscow

MOSCOW, Aug 11 (AFP): Russia said Friday it had destroyed a Ukrainian drone over the western outskirts of Moscow, the latest in a growing number of aerial attacks on the capital.
"An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using an unmanned aerial vehicle on a facility in Moscow was thwarted," the defence ministry said, adding there was no damage or casualties as a result of the incident.
Largely spared in the early part of the conflict, the capital has seen a surge in attacks in recent months.
"Drones are flying yet again above Moscow," said Artemy Dusilov, a 21-year-old tech student who biked with a friend to see where the drone had fallen.
"They keep us in fear a bit."
AFP journalists saw police had cordoned off parts of a park in the Karamyshevskaya embankment in the west of Moscow, where debris landed.
The international airport of Vnukovo temporarily introduced restrictions, which were lifted within an hour, state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Friday's attack was the latest in a series of Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow in the past week.
On Thursday, Russia said it downed two drones headed for Moscow, a day after two others were destroyed on approach.
At the start of this month, an office block in the capital's main business district, Moscow City, was struck twice within days by debris from a downed drone strike.
Alexei Benedesyuk, a 54-year-old driver, was standing next to the cordoned-off area, a few hundred metres away from his house.
"It's already happened: Moscow City, and the Kremlin... It will still happen and I think more than once," he said.
An Arab News adds: The Biden administration on Thursday asked Congress to provide more than $13 billion in emergency defence aid to Ukraine and an additional $8 billion for humanitarian support through the end of the year, another massive infusion of cash as the Russian invasion wears on and Ukraine pushes a counteroffensive against the Kremlin's deeply entrenched forces.
The package includes $12 billion to replenish US federal disaster funds at home after a deadly climate season of heat and storms, and funds to bolster the enforcement at the Southern border with Mexico, including money to curb the flow of deadly fentanyl. All told, it's a $40 billion package.
While the last such supplemental spending request from the White House for Ukraine funding was easily approved in 2022 despite reservations from Republicans, there's a different dynamic this time.
A political divide on the issue has steadily grown, with the Republican-led House facing enormous pressure to demonstrate support for the party's leader, Donald Trump, who has been very skeptical of the war. And American support for the effort has been slowly softening.
White House budget director Shalanda Young, in a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, urged swift action to follow through on the US "commitment to the Ukrainian peoples' defence of their homeland and to democracy around the world" as well as other needs.
The request was crafted with an eye to picking up support from Republicans, as well as Democrats, particularly with increased domestic funding around border issues - a top priority for the GOP. The Republicans have been been highly critical of the Biden administration's approach to halting the flow of migrants crossing from Mexico.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the dismissal of the heads of all the country's regional military recruitment centres on Friday amid concerns about corruption.
Zelensky said a review of Ukraine's recruiting centres revealed signs of professional abuse ranging from illegal enrichment to transporting draft-eligible men across the border despite a wartime ban.
"This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery during war is treason," he said in a statement.
Kyiv has made cracking down on graft a key priority as it fends off Russia's full-scale invasion and seeks membership of the European Union.
Zelensky said top general Valery Zaluzhny would be responsible for implementing the decision and that new candidates for the posts would first be vetted by Ukraine's domestic security service, the SBU.