Moscow. It is becoming customary to wake up in the Russian capital with the news that a few hours earlier, in the middle of the night, there was a new attack with drones presumably launched from Ukraine. This is what happened this Tuesday, when an unmanned aerial device crashed on the 21st floor of the IQ-Moscow City District skyscraper, the same one hit by a similar attack two days ago, while two other devices fell, demolished, in the vicinity of the most important Russian city.
The Ministry of Defense reported that it shot down two drones as they approached Moscow, and a third, neutralized with radio-electronic resources, deviated from its route and fell in the Moscow business center, known as the City, in the same building where three Russian government ministries have offices, as do several lower-ranking federal agencies.
This time the impact shortly before 4 in the morning, which broke windows and destroyed offices, affected the area of the Ministry of Economic Development, while the other two devices, shot down by the Russian anti-aircraft defense, according to his version, collapsed in of fragments in the Odintsovo district, where, according to military expert Yuri Fiodorov, the central command of Russia’s strategic (medium-range and intercontinental missiles) and space forces is located, in a bunker built in Soviet times, and in Naro-Fominsk, where one of the elite units of the Russian army is based, the second motorized infantry division.
Again, for several hours the Vnukovo international airport, close to the headquarters of the General Staff of the Russian army, was closed.
Some observers believe that this drone attack in Moscow, the fifth in the recent 30 days, could be a Ukrainian response to the two missiles that hit a residential building and the University of Krivoy Rog, the hometown of the former, the previous Monday. President Volodymir Zelensky, causing – in the balance until this Tuesday – six deaths and more than 70 wounded.
Spokesperson compares “terrorist acts” to 9/11
The spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, María Zajarova, mentioned that these types of attacks are similar to the “terrorist acts of different magnitude” that we know of and equated them with those that occurred in the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001, which they caused almost 3 thousand deaths.
“The methodology is the same. The City of Moscow is a civil installation, in which there are not only offices, but also departments (for housing, in other skyscrapers) or civil offices that have nothing to do with the military sector. The painting is identical, it seems that it repeats itself, ”said Zajarova on the television program Solovyov Live.
Hours later, Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov disagreed with her, telling reporters: “I don’t see any analogy with 9/11. Of course there is a threat, it is evident, and measures are taken ”.
The adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mikhailo Podolyak, interviewed this morning (Tuesday) on the program Breakfest Show, which is broadcast from Lithuania, assured that Ukraine has nothing to do with the drone attacks against Moscow, although he is convinced that they will soon multiply geometrically.
They are launched from the outskirts of the capital
“How do you know, if you say they have nothing to do with it?” asked the host of the program, Tatiana Felgengauer, an exiled Russian journalist. “It is very simple. We believe that these drones are launched from the outskirts of Moscow and who knows who does it, but there are more and more Russians who are dissatisfied with the war, who return mutilated or disappointed that they were sent to fight without reason, and they protest in this way. It is very easy to make a drone of that size and characteristics”, explained Podolyak.
Analysts like Pavel Aksionov, on the other hand, do not doubt that Ukraine has drones capable of flying over a thousand kilometers – the Ukrainian border is 500 kilometers from Moscow – and they consider that these attacks are bad news for Russia in any case.
Because – he reflects – if, indeed, the drones were launched from Ukraine, this means that the Russian anti-aircraft defense has a serious problem if these explosive devices can reach the center of the Russian capital without problems. And if they are fired from the outskirts of the city, it is also not better that the security services can do nothing and do not know who is doing it and from where.
A quick review of the file in the last 30 days shows us that these types of attacks on Russian territory – Ukraine has only recognized a few and linked to Crimea – are happening with increasing frequency. Let’s see: July 4, four drones, outside Moscow; July 6, six drones, Belgorod region; July 13, three drones, Voronezh region; July 14, a drone, Kursk region; July 16, eight drones, Sevastopol, Crimea; July 20, a drone, Crimea.
In the second half of the month, the attacks intensified: July 22, one drone, Crimea, and another, Belgorod region; July 24, two drones – Moscow, and 17 – Crimea; July 28, a drone, Moscow; July 30, three – Moscow, and 25 – Crimea, as well as one more – Rostov region; July 31, a drone, Bryansk region; and August 1, three, Moscow.
Bombardment on Kherson
Meanwhile, the Kherson authorities reported that this Tuesday, around 11 in the morning, the Russian army bombarded the city and one of the projectiles destroyed two floors of a hospital, causing the death of a young doctor and a nurse. The day before (Monday), they also bombarded that city with a balance of at least four dead and 17 wounded.
Roman Mrochko, head of the military administration of the city of Kherson, is convinced that Russia intensified the attacks against him to facilitate the rotation of its troops in the area.
For his part, the mayor of Kharkov, Igor Terejov, reported that there were three nighttime incursions with drones and two devices hit “a student residence and a sports facility, injuring a guard.”
Speaking to the newspaper Suspilne Kharkiv (Kharkiv Public), the police chief of the second largest city in Ukraine, Volodymir Tymoshko, believes that “no less than seven kamikaze drones attacked us tonight: they hit in a chaotic way, wherever, against civil, non-civilian, energy, they do not care”.
