Moscow is building a new missile defense complex near a research institute linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s daughter, in what appears to be the latest effort to bolster the capital’s defenses against potential Ukrainian missile attacks.

RFE/RL’s Russian Service has found that a concrete platform has been erected and Russia’s S-400 air-defense systems have been deployed on the grounds of the headquarters of the Innopraktika Foundation, a $1.7 billion government-backed project headed by Putin’s youngest daughter, Katerina Tikhonova.

Located on high ground in the city center, less than 10 kilometers from the Kremlin and about 300 meters from a building of Moscow State University, the new missile defense complex marks at least the fifth such facility in an emerging ring inside the Russian capital.

According to satellite imagery of the construction site, its shape and size exactly match those of other similar military installations in Moscow previously identified by RFE/RL earlier this month.

The Russian military has already been constructing similar defense infrastructure in Moscow using Pantsir-S1 missile systems to defend against Ukrainian drone attacks.

However, the newly built S-400 complexes, designed to intercept missiles, appear intended to counter Kyiv’s developing ballistic capabilities.

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