Drone strike in Moscow brings the war in Ukraine to the Russians
A barrage of attack drones was brought down over Moscow on Tuesday, the first time civilian areas of the Russian capital have been directly hit by the Ukrainian conflict and a signal that a war in the distance may soon feel a little less to ordinary Russians.
The physical damage was minimal, limited to shattered apartment windows and some minor injuries in an upscale neighborhood, but the psychological impact could prove far greater for a citizenry that has so far been able to go about daily life without think about the bloodshed that is taking place. across the border.
“If the aim was to stress the population, the very fact that drones appeared in the skies over Moscow contributed to that.” wrote a pro-war Russian bloggerMikhail Zvinchuk, who posts under the name Rybar.
The drones, at least eight, came as Russia was involved in a particularly protracted airstrike on Ukraine’s capital, Kiev. And while President Vladimir V. Putin blamed Ukraine for what he called “terrorist activities,” no one was killed in Moscow on Tuesday. The same could not be said of Kiev, where one person was killed in the Russian attacks.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Ukraine was not “directly involved” in the attack, but was “happy” to see what was happening across the border. An Air Force spokesman, who typically maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity about attacks on Russian soil, said: declined to comment.
Both Russian officials and Ukrainian allies seemed to choose their words carefully in their response to the attack.
While the United States has flooded Ukraine with military equipment since the war began in February 2022, US officials have made it clear they do not want it to touch Russian territory or the conflict could escalate.
On Tuesday, they seemed to hedge that position a bit.
The State Department and National Security Council both issued statements saying the United States does not support strikes in Russia “as a general matter,” but noted that Tuesday marked the 17th time this month that Russia had attacked Kiev.
Britain, another Ukrainian ally, went further.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Ukraine had “the right to use force beyond its borders” to undermine Russian attacks and that military targets beyond a country’s borders “are internationally recognized as legitimate as part of self-defense of a country”. Mr Cleverly said he had no details about the drone strikes and was speaking more broadly.
In Moscow, where the drone invasion raised questions about Russian air defenses, Kremlin officials tried to ignore the seriousness of the attack, though they suggested it would lead to changes.
“It is clear what needs to be done to increase the density of the capital’s air defense systems,” Putin said. “And we’re just going to do that.”
Yet a ruling party lawmaker, Andrei Gurulev, said people in central Moscow were more likely to be hit by an electric scooter than a drone. “We didn’t do that badly today,” he told state news media.
Russia’s defense ministry said five of the drones had been shot down and three had their signals electronically jamming.
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, after seizing territory there in 2014, it was expected to win quickly and decisively. Instead, the Ukrainian military left Russia fighting for every inch.
Now, more than a year after Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, a series of embarrassing attacks on Russian soil has shown that the Russians can be vulnerable even at home.
Ukraine has launched a brutal drone strike on military air bases deep inside Russia. A drone also hit an oil installation near an airport in Russia’s Kursk province. And earlier this month, drones exploded over the Kremlinan attack that US officials say was most likely carried out by one of Kiev’s special military or intelligence units.
And last week, one cross-border violence in southern Russia by anti-Kremlin fighters for two days, potentially creating a new set of battlefield problems. A similar attack was reported on Tuesday.
Russia is vulnerable to drone strikes partly because of its size — its border with Ukraine is more than 1,400 miles (2,200 km) — but also because its air defense radars are designed to detect aircraft and missiles larger than drones, says Sam Bendett, an adviser to Russian studies. at CNA, a non-profit research organization based in Virginia.
Aside from creating a sense of vulnerability in Russia, he said, Ukrainian drone strikes could serve to test Moscow’s air defense systems and identify potential weaknesses that could be exploited in other strikes.
Part of the challenge for Russia has been adapting the complex air defense system surrounding Moscow to the threats of a new era.
“In the past, air defense systems near cities would take out anything smaller than a helicopter,” says Ian Williams of the Missile defense project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. “Small drones can have radar the size of a goose, so if you tune your radars to look for enemy drones, you’ll also see a lot of birds.”
Yet it has not been confirmed that Ukraine was behind Tuesday’s attack, and big questions remain about Ukraine’s drone capabilities
Last fall, Ukroboronprom, Ukraine’s state-owned weapons maker, said it was on the verge of developing a drone that could carry a 165-pound nuclear warhead more than 600 miles, putting Moscow well within range, and that it was conducting tests. of the weapon completed. But Ukraine has not announced the use of such a long-range drone in combat.
And on Tuesday, US defense officials said the next batch of weapons sent to Ukraine will include missiles for the Patriot air defense system and more missiles for the HIMARS mobile system. The $300 million military aid package could be announced as early as Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the head of the powerful Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, said the attack highlighted Russia’s technological backwardness in drone warfare, and renewed his diatribe against Russian military officials, whom he has long accused of incompetence .
“What should ordinary people do when drones loaded with explosives crash into their windows?” he said in one audio message posted on Telegram, adding, “The people have every right to ask them these questions.”
Mr Prigozhin noted that some of the drones crashed in the neighborhoods of Russian political and military elites. “Let your houses burn,” he said, referring to military and political elites.
Igor Girkin, a former paramilitary leader who had long called for an escalation of the war in Ukraine, said on Telegram: “The strength of the psychological blow caused by the drone strike on Moscow is not in the magnitude of the destruction, but in the fact that the leaders of the country have not promised us war, but a special military operation.”
“Instead of an honest conversation with a nation, we get vague consolation about Napoleon’s conquest of Moscow: don’t worry, everything is going according to plan,” he said. “Then what’s the real plan?”
Tatiana Stanovaya, a Russian political scientist based in Paris, said the lack of wartime leadership under Putin was becoming glaring.
“Everything is built on his oft-voted idea of a ‘patient nation’ that understands everything and will endure everything.” she wrote on Telegram on Tuesday. “Let’s see.”
In Ukraine, where incoming drones and missiles are commonplace, some watched what happened in Moscow with grim satisfaction.
“It’s great that they can feel what we feel here every day,” said Samir Memedov, 32, an account manager in Kiev who was forced to take shelter in a subway station during Russian attacks this week.
Another Kiev resident, Yulia Honcharova, said she had mixed feelings.
“I am not among those who think we should bomb their residential areas at night,” she said, “but I do want them to feel what it is like to live under constant alarm, like people in Kiev, Kharkiv, Dnipro.”
Reporting contributed by John Ismay, Marc Santora, Matthew Mpoke Bigg, Andrew E. Kramer, Eric Schmitt And Anna Lukanova.