Table of Contents
Recent Developments
On Tuesday, Russian Defense Ministry stated that Ukraine had conducted a drone attack on Moscow, leadings to flights diversions at Vnukovo International Airport.
According to reports, five drones were deployed in Tuesday’s attack, which targeted the Moscow region and one of its busiest airports.
A video clip supposedly depicting a drone attack posted on social media had gone viral, displaying explosions in New Moscow, a densely populated southern neighbourhood near Moscow, while other clips depicting clouds of black smoke flowing over the suburbs of Moscow but the authenticity of the videos could not be verified.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed that there was an attempted attack by Ukrainian drones in the New Moscow and Moandthew regions of Russia, asserting that the drones have been neutralised by the Russian Air Defense .
The Defence Ministry had stated that all the drones were disabled without any casualties or damage by the drones.
Out of the five reported drones, four were shot down, and one was electronically intercepted and then crashed.
While the Russian defence ministry had attributed the attack to Ukraine, Ukraine has not yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Response to the attack
In response to the drone attacks, restrictions were placed on Vnukovo airport at 5 a.m. local time, one of the three international airports in Moscow, which affected flights arriving from Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt. The restrictions were lifted at 8 a.m. local time.
According to Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, the attempt by the Ukrainian authorities was to attack a zone with vital civil infrastructure, including Vnukovo Airport, which receives international flights, further characterizing it as a terrorist attack.
According to Russia’s TASS state news agency, two drones out of five suspected Ukrainian drones were intercepted in the skies over Novaya Moska, near Moscow, while another was intercepted in the neighbouring region of Kaluga, southwest of Moscow.
The TASS further reported that three drones were heading towards Moscow at different times.
Ukraine’s stance
The Ukrainian authorities have consistently denied responsibility for both incidents. As a general policy in such instances, Ukrainian authorities refrain from confirming or denying strikes inside Russia. However, such attacks are align with Ukraine’s shaping operations, under which the attacks are less intended to cause actual damage than to distract the Russian authorities and influence public opinion.
Such shaping operations are designed to shape the battlefield while the Ukraine counterattacks on the ground to win back occupied territory.
Similar instances
Similar attacks took place in May, when two people were injured after multiple drones crashed into residential buildings in Moscow.
Another similar incident took place in early May, when two drones were shot down over a Kremlin building. Russia accused Ukraine of attempting to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin.
These drone attacks have failed to yield any satisfactory result and provide Ukraine with the requisite momentum in the war that it had hoped for. The Ukrainian President had previously acknowledged that progress was slow.
Russia’s drone attacks in past
Russia has a history of regularly attaking civilian infrastructure in Ukraine with drones and missiles, resulting in the deaths and injuries of numerous civilians. The Russian drones and missiles have a tendency to attack Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and other cities in multiple waves while targeting other residential complexes.
On Monday, Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskyy stated that Russian drones had attacked the local office of SBU, the Ukrainian intelligence service located in the Northern Sumy region, as well as a residential building, killing three people and injuring 21 others.
