Russian Official Comparing Moscow Drone Strikes to 9/11 Sparks Backlash

A Russian government spokesperson comparing Tuesday's drone attack on Moscow to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has generated backlash online and a swift distancing from the remarks by the Kremlin itself.

On Tuesday, Moscow's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said a drone had damaged the exterior of a skyscraper in the city's financial district. It was the same tower that Moscow said Ukrainian drones struck on Sunday morning. The high-rise building is home to Russia's Ministry of Economic Development, its Digital Ministry and the Ministry for Industry and Trade.

Russia's Defense Ministry called the strikes an attempted "terrorist attack," language it has frequently used to describe alleged Ukrainian operations.

It is the latest in a spate of drone assaults on the Russian capital, all of which Moscow has blamed on Kyiv. Ukraine typically avoids taking responsibility for attacks on Russian territory, and has not publicly claimed responsibility for the latest targeting. Newsweek reached out to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry via email on Tuesday.

Reacting to the strikes, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova compared the drones hitting the Moscow City building to 9/11.

According to Russian officials, no one has been killed in recent drone strikes on Moscow. The death toll during the terrorist attacks in 2001 was just under 3,000 people.

"A colossal number of victims, but the methodology is the same," she said during an an appearance on a Russian state media broadcast run by Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov.

"Moscow City is a civilian facility that not only houses offices [and] a business center, but also residential premises," she added. These buildings have "nothing to do with the military," she continued.

During the 9/11 attacks, terrorists linked to al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airliners, two of which crashed into the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center. A third was brought down into the Pentagon, which is based at Arlington, Virginia. The fourth airplane crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

"The same picture, it seems to be repeated," Zakharova said.

In remarks reportedly shortly after Zakharova's appearance on state television, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov dismissed links between 9/11 and the Moscow drone attacks.

Likening the strikes to 9/11 is a "bizarre argument," one Twitter user said, with another social media user describing the comments as "ridiculous."

"Everything was the same apart from everything," another tweeted.

During 9/11, the Twin Towers in New York sustained structural damage, and both collapsed, with several other buildings at the World Trade Center complex also destroyed.

On Tuesday, Sobyanin said the outside of the 21st floor of the Moscow high-rise building was damaged, with 150 square meters' worth of glass broken.

The structural supports of the 42-floor IQ skyscraper in Moscow City remain "intact and were not damaged as a result of the drone hit," the state-backed Tass news agency reported, citing emergency services.

It is not yet clear why the same building was hit in consecutive drone strikes, but there would be symbolic value in both hitting Moscow and government targets.

Hitting non-residential targets, however, does not match up to Ukraine's doctrine of striking military bases and logistical hubs, experts have told Newsweek.

But there will nonetheless be a "deliberate psychological effect" to bringing the war to the Russian capital and the Russian population, Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow with the London-based Royal United Services Institute think tank, told Newsweek on Monday.