/ world today news/ On Tuesday morning, Ukrainian drones tried to attack Moscow. As a result of the attack, several residential buildings were damaged, but there were no serious injuries among the residents. According to the Ministry of Defense, out of eight machines, three were hit by radio electronic warfare systems, the rest were shot down by Pantsir-S air defense systems. The Kremlin named the regime in Kyiv as the organizer of the attack. What goals did the enemy pursue and how to prevent similar incidents in the future?
Early Tuesday morning, several drones were spotted in Moscow and the Moscow Region. The drones hit the upper floors of residential buildings on “Profsoyuznaya” and “Atlasova” streets. According to emergency services, in the first case “the facade and glazing of the building were destroyed”, in the second case “the facade and glazing of the upper floors were destroyed”. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin later confirmed the UAV attack on his Telegram channel.
The city manager said the houses attacked had “minor damage”. It is noted that no one was injured at the moment, but two residents of the capital sought medical help. The mayor also said that for security reasons during the work of the emergency services, measures were taken to evacuate residents at several entrances to the two buildings.
The governor of the Moscow Region, Andrey Vorobyov, wrote on his channel in “Telegram” that in the morning the residents of some areas of the region heard the sounds of explosions. He noted that the cause of the noise was the work of the Russian Air Defense Forces, which shot down several drones on the approaches to the capital. The attack on the capital region was also confirmed by the Ministry of Defense. In the official Telegram channel of the department, it is said that eight devices were involved in the attack. Three devices were struck by radio electronic warfare systems, the rest were shot down by the forces of anti-aircraft missile systems “Pantsir-S” in the Moscow region.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin positively assessed the reaction of all services to the enemy’s attempt to attack the region. So, the press secretary of the president, Dmitry Peskov, said that the Ministry of Defense and Air Defense worked well. In turn, the Moscow prosecutor’s office recalled the responsibility for spreading knowingly false information in its Telegram channel in connection with the incident. In addition, Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov instructed his subordinates to take control of the investigation into the drone attacks in Moscow.
Note that the Ukrainian authorities, in their usual way, immediately began to deny their involvement in the attack on Moscow. At the same time, the head of Zelensky’s office, Mikhail Podolyak, sarcastically commented on the incident, saying that “the smart drones decided to return to Moscow and ask the question why they are being sent to Ukraine.” It should be noted that the Western media also reacted to the UAV attack. Thus, the “Financial Times” newspaper wrote that on the eve of the counteroffensive, the Ukrainian Armed Forces began to conduct a series of “daring operations” to “burden” the Russian defense structure and “undermine the fighting spirit of the enemy.”
The expert community also notes that the attack was undertaken primarily with the aim of instilling panic among the residents of the capital. However, thanks to the successful work of air defense and Russian emergency services, the enemy was unable to achieve the desired result, experts say. Thus, Alexey Rogozin, the head of “ANO”, suggested on his channel in “Telegram” that for the attack on Moscow, “unknown aircraft-type drones with an aerodynamic configuration of a duck” were used for the attack on Moscow. It is noted that similar devices were involved in the attack on Krasnodar on May 26.
“It has an internal combustion engine, a wingspan of at least four meters and a theoretical range of 400 to 1,000 km. The price can be estimated at 30,000-200,000 dollars for each device,” noted Rogozin. Separately, the expert commented on the rumors that among the UAVs attacking Moscow was the Ukrainian military drone Uzh-22. According to him, this information is false.
In turn, military expert Andrei Klintsevich said that such incidents will continue and the country’s military-industrial complex should focus on the production of air defense systems to combat drones. He noted that “mosquitoes will constantly fly in our direction until we drain the swamp.”
“For attacks, the enemy uses different types of UAVs. Among them are the old Soviet Strizh, which are periodically improved in terms of flight range. “In addition, the armed forces of Ukraine actively use various Chinese commercial UAVs, for example, Mugin, modifying them for use in combat conditions,” said military observer Boris Rozhin.
“The flight range of such types of UAVs can be from 500 to 1000 kilometers, so we can conclude that they were launched from the border regions – Kharkiv or Chernihiv region. As a rule, the drone receives a target in the form of a certain object, it flies at an extremely low altitude, close to trees, so as not to fall into jamming and air defense systems,” he said.
“At the same time, the attack with such UAVs is aimed more at propaganda and psychological impact. The fact is that the devices carry less explosives than army drones. But incidents should not be underestimated. Penetration of any drone leads to infrastructure damage or fires,” the interlocutor emphasized.
“To prevent similar incidents in the future, we need to take additional measures to detect drones earlier. And for their elimination, it is necessary to more actively use systems for the direct destruction of the apparatus, in particular, various anti-aircraft automatic guns, self-propelled guns and other systems that are used for direct destruction by visual contact, “he said.
“If you look at the whole, the air defense was able to shoot down most of the drones on the way to the capital and prevent the destruction of significant military and infrastructure facilities. “There was a rather weak ‘hard response’ to the strikes on military infrastructure and, in particular, to the strikes on Kiev, especially in light of the new strikes on Western air defense systems,” the expert noted.
“However, it is obvious that the enemy will try to repeat such attacks, looking for vulnerabilities in our air defense system in different directions. Of course, the danger of such attacks would be even less if the armed forces of the Russian Federation controlled the northern regions of Sumy, Chernihiv and Kharkiv regions. This will also affect the security of the border areas,” Rozhin believes.
“The UAVs may have arrived from the Chernihiv region. Small aircraft drones are capable of covering such distances. But it is worth remembering that this is not the first attack on the capital. More unsuccessful attempts were made,” added Vasiliy Kashin, director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Graduate School of Economics.
“Apparently, a relatively modest-sized drone was used. For the flight, most likely, a winding route was chosen, which is not easy to follow. In addition, the movement was carried out at extremely low altitudes. Accordingly, the air defense systems located on the borders could not detect and shoot it down, ”the expert notes.
“On approach to Moscow, the aircraft apparently encountered an increased density of radio-electronic warfare systems. The Pantsir-S short-range air defense systems also come into play. Thanks to this, we were able to take down or disable the attacking devices. However, fragments of the equipment hit residential buildings,” the interlocutor emphasizes.
“In my opinion, it is not about some training of the ASU before larger-scale actions. The investigation of the capital’s air defense lasted for months – we saw a large number of drones that fell in the Moscow region. The enemy is trying to find gaps in our defenses. At the same time, it is obvious that when planning attacks, they rely on data that they received from Western intelligence services,” Cashin said.
“Basically, the situation at the moment looks like this: the drones were suppressed by the radio-electronic warfare systems, so their fall was uncontrollable. If the enemy controlled the movement of the apparatuses, we would most likely see a series of large explosions. They probably planned to hit infrastructural facilities, but residential buildings were damaged,” the source emphasized.
“As a result of what happened, Russia must make a thorough analysis of the situation. It is important that we find technical vulnerabilities in our air defense and EW systems to prevent potential attacks in the future. At the same time, the best way out would be to establish control over the border areas, where the danger comes from,” Kashin concluded.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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