War comes to Putin’s doorstep: Wealthy Moscow region is hit by kamikaze drones

Moscow was under siege early today from a suspected Ukrainian kamikaze drone attack just hours after Vladimir Putin unleashed a volley of suicide UAVs at the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

The suspected Ukrainian drones hit the wealthy Moscow region, which encircles the Russian capital, including the elite district of Rublyovka and damaged a series of buildings. 

The explosive drones struck blocks of flats in Leninisky Prospekt and Profsoyuznaya Street near to the centre of Moscow, reportedly wounding several people and damaging the buildings.

Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed that Ukraine had launched eight drones at Moscow but insisted all of the UAVs were shot down by its Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile system.

Moscow, located more than 620 miles from Ukraine, has only rarely been targeted by drone attacks since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, even though such attacks have become more common elsewhere in Russia. 

The rare drone attack on Moscow and its surrounding areas came after Russia launched a pre-dawn attack on Ukraine‘s capital on Tuesday, killing at least one person and sending Kyiv’s residents scrambling into shelters to escape a relentless wave of daylight and nighttime bombardments.

At least 20 Iranian-made Shahed drones were destroyed by Kyiv’s air defence forces in Russia’s third attack on the capital in the past 24 hours. 

The buzzing of the drones, which are packed with explosives, could be heard over the city followed by loud explosions as they were taken down by air defense systems.

The two upper floors were destroyed, and there may be people under the rubble, the Kyiv military administration said. More than 20 people were evacuated. 

Elsewhere in Kyiv, falling debris caused a fire in a private house in the Darnytskyi district and three cars were set alight in the Pechersky district, according to the military administration.

Hours after the attack, Ukraine reportedly launched a rare drone attack on Moscow and its surrounding wealthy areas.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said two people were injured, one of whom was hospitalised, in the early morning attack. The residents of several parts of two apartment blocks had been evacuated but later returned.

‘Early this morning, as a result of the drone attack, minor damage occurred in several buildings,’ Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. ‘No one has been seriously injured.’ 

Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the wider Moscow region, later said several drones were ‘shot down on the approach to Moscow.’

Video posted on social media showed what appeared to be a drone being shot down and a plume of smoke rising over the Moscow skyline. 

Russia’s Defence Ministry said that Ukraine had launched eight drones at Moscow, but that all the UAVs were downed.

‘This morning, the Kyiv regime launched a terrorist drone attack on targets in the city of Moscow,’ the defence ministry said.

‘Three of them were suppressed by electronic warfare, lost control and deviated from their intended targets. Another five drones were shot down by the Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile system in the Moscow region,’ it said.

Russian lawmaker Maxim Ivanov said it was the most serious attack on Moscow since Nazi attacks during World War Two, saying no citizen could now avoid what he said was ‘the new reality’.

‘You will either defeat the enemy as a single fist with our Motherland, or the indelible shame of cowardice, collaboration and betrayal will engulf your family,’ he said.

Until now Moscow has been largely a safe haven from attacks in the war with life going on as normal despite the mayhem and misery Vladimir Putin has unleashed in dozens of Ukrainian cities.

The head of Ukrainian military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov had warned Russia it would see a quick response to the unprecedented drone and missile attacks on Kyiv in recent days. 

‘All those who tried to intimidate us, dreaming that this would have some effect, you will regret it very soon,’ said Budanov. ‘Our answer will not be long in coming. Soon everyone will see everything.’

Yet there was no immediate confirmation that Ukraine was behind the assault on Moscow, which saw drones fly over Rublyovka, home to many of Putin’s closest oligarchs and not far from his Moscow region official residence. 

Drones exploded in the suburbs of New Moscow and Novaya Riga near Moscow. One drone hit the upper floors of a residential building at 98 Profsoyuznaya Street, destroying part of the apartment building. 

A second hit a 24-storey residential tower block on Atlasova Street in New Moscow. 

Meanwhile, drones were seen in the sky over villages close to Moscow including Funkovo, Kezmino and Romashkovo. 

Local residents in the Moscow region filmed the drones flying overhead, with one saying: ‘F*** what a moment I caught. The b**** is right by our house. F***! Should I leave here? I just walked out on the roof to check, and they were getting closer and closer.’

Ukrainian drone attacks inside Russia have been growing in intensity in recent weeks. The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence believes Ukraine was behind a drone attack on the Kremlin earlier this month in what was labelled an attempt on President Vladimir Putin’s life.

Ukraine has not publicly acknowledged launching attacks against targets inside Russia. 

Today’s strikes in Moscow and Kyiv came a day after Russian forces fired a barrage of missiles at Kyiv on Monday, sending panicked residents running for shelter in an unusual daytime attack on the Ukrainian capital following overnight strikes.

Debris from missiles intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses fell in Kyiv’s central and northern districts on Monday morning, landing in the middle of traffic on a city road and also starting a fire on a building’s roof, the Kyiv military administration said. At least one civilian was reported hurt.

Ukraine shot down 11 cruise and ballistic missiles fired in the second of Monday’s attacks on Kyiv, said Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Heavy air strikes about six hours earlier had targeted the capital, put five Ukrainian aircraft out of action in the west of the country and caused a fire in the Black Sea port of Odesa.

Russia has increased the frequency of air attacks as Ukraine prepares to launch a counteroffensive. 

The air attacks come as Ukraine prepares a counter-offensive backed with Western weapons to try to drive Russian occupiers out of territory seized since Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022.

‘With these constant attacks, the enemy seeks to keep the civilian population in deep psychological tension,’ said Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration.

On the eastern frontlines, Russian paratroops and motorised units were replacing Wagner mercenary units in the eastern city of Bakhmut, according to Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for the eastern group of Ukrainian Forces.

Wagner began handing over positions to regular troops this week after declaring full control of Bakhmut following the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.

Moscow said it invaded Ukraine to ‘denazify’ its neighbour and protect Russian speakers. Western opponents say the invasion is an imperialist land grab in which tens of thousands have been killed, millions uprooted and cities reduced to ruins.

Russia says it is open to resuming stalled peace talks with Kyiv and has welcomed mediation efforts from Brazil and China.

But a top aide to Zelenskiy said Kyiv’s peace plan, envisaging the full withdrawal of Russian troops, was the only way to end the war.

‘There cannot be a Brazilian peace plan, a Chinese peace plan, a South African peace plan when you are talking about the war in Ukraine,’ chief diplomatic adviser Ihor Zhovkva told Reuters in an interview late on Friday.