Ukraine's Moral Impertinence

"It's not a fun day today: loud sounds of explosions woke us up at 6:30 a.m."

"My wife suggested we move to the basement but what if something hit us: I wouldn't want to be buried in some basement. What will be will be."

"The only good thing is the kids are in Milan."

Viktor Bondarenko, Rublyovka, Moscow suburb

"What on earth are you doing, stinky morons?"

"Why the f--- did you let those drones get to Moscow?'

"They're flying to Tublyovka to your houses -- let your houses go up in flames!"

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin

Russia has deployed drones against Ukrainian cities for months but has recently faced a growing wave of attacks within its own borders.  Aleksandr Kazakov / Sipa USA via AP

"The attack caused little damage, was irrelevant for most Russians, and is being finessed by the Russian media as another Ukrainian provocation in the face of Russian restraint."

"Single incidents such as this will not change Russian domestic politics appreciably. What matters more are larger trends, such as the situation on the ground in Ukraine and the level of Russian military casualties."

Christopher Tuck, expert in conflict and security, King’s College London

When drones strike inside Russia's borders they are called terrorist attacks. When drones strike within Ukraine in huge numbers targeting civilian infrastructure the Kremlin shrugs at a commonplace of war even while denying its troops deliberately hit civilian structures from hospitals to schools, medical clinics to shopping centres. A number of 'terrorist' attacks have struck inside Russia, even targeting a Kremlin building, and according to Moscow a 'terrorist' drone struck in Sevastopol, occupied Crimea, targeting the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

 

Completely intolerable. The Iran-produced Shahed drones are more powerful, can strike further and carry a larger explosive load than the UJ-22 Ukraine revealed in 2021, with a range of 800 km, carrying up to 20 kg of explosives. "A Muscovite has just found out that this country is at war ... Smoothies and scooter rides are cancelled", reporter Andrei Rudenko at state TV in occupied Donetsk wrote on his Telegram channel, posting a video of a young man in disbelief seeing a number of fire engines parked outside his home.

The drone fleet that hit the wealthiest neighbourhoods in Moscow may very well have been the work of the same Russian opposition groups that had staged a cross-border raid several weeks ago, likely with the connivance of Kyiv since they're also part of the foreign volunteer brigades fighting Moscow in Ukraine.Their choice targets and their aims of the UAVs are certainly admirable. As is the decision to stun ordinary Russians with the reality of a war their leadership imposed on Ukraine reaching out to touch them personally.

Or, as Russian lawmaker Maxim Ivanov was reported stating that no Russian could now avoid "the new reality". The Kremlin is now accusing Ukraine of 'war crimes' for sending Ukraine-produced UAVs into civilian areas of the Russian capital. Something that the Russian military has been doing without a twitch of conscience to Ukrainian cities and Ukrainian citizens for over a year, even while protesting that their military never targets civilians. 

An estimated thirteen drones crashed across Moscow, although the Kremlin admits to only eight, most of which they claim were shot down. Eight -- according to Russia's defence ministry -- attacked Moscow, but they had shot down five and electronically jammed three. Which is rather amazing given that a number of buildings were hit and sustained notable damage. Russia's air defence "successfully reacted to the attack", according to Vladimir Putin, adding there were "things to work on", presumably Russia's defences against penetration of such strikes hitting the city's most sheltered areas.

 

Law enforcement officers and investigators are seen outside a damaged multi-storey apartment building after a reported drone attack in Moscow on Tuesday. (Kirill Kudryavtseva/AFP/Getty Images)

 

Which of course, is where the elite and the wealthy reside in their mansions, never dreaming they might be the victims of attacks, awakening to the reality that is far from new for the tens of thousands of ordinary Ukrainians who have lived or died through countless midnight and early-morning artillery strikes and deadly drones disrupting the normalcy of life and robbing many of their very existence. This latest surprise event has awakened Russia's elite and its ordinary citizens to the extraordinary realization that they too are targets of war.

Moscow's 'Beverly Hills' neighbourhood, Rublyovka, saw residents rudely jarred from sleep by explosions as drones attacked their sheltered area. Some drones detonated while striking power lines. Nearby villages less than ten kilometres from Putin's official residence were impacted as drones were shot down over Romashkova and Razdory, one of which crashed across the river from the community that is home to Arkady Rotenberg, Putin's close friend, along with the homes of top defence ministry officials.

Gazprom's chief, living in the luxury neighbourhood of Grinfield saw it too hit by a drone, but the Russian gas giant's mansion was spared. Where finance Minister Anton Silunaov lives, video footage showed a drone flying over French-style estates in Ilyinskoye. Moscow's Pantsir air defences fired rockets to intercept the drones, but not all unmanned aerial vehicles were downed outside the beltway separating the city from the suburbs; at least three drones crashed into two highrise buildings south-west of the capital.

Bomb squads arrived to defuse three explosive devices when a drone flew into a block of apartments and the building was evacuated. 

 

Russian authorities are accusing Ukraine of launching drone strikes in Moscow that damaged some buildings and alarmed residents. Ukraine has endured a series of deadly airstrikes this month and denies any involvement.   Still from video CBC

In Ukraine, the war goes on, as Russia launched a predawn air raid on Kyiv, killing at least one person and sending the capital's residents again scrambling into shelters. According to information from the Kyiv Military Administration, at least 20 Shahed explosive drones were destroyed by air defence forces in Kyiv's airspace, in Russia's third attack on the capital in the past 24 hours. Overall, Ukraine shot down 29 of 31 drones fired into the country, most in the Kyiv area, the air force later said. These overwhelming numbers of UAVs, fully explosive, are aimed at civilian infrastructure as always, not to be confused with terrorist acts by Ukraine.