Russia's Getting Hit at Home, Ukraine Says Only One Way to Stop
Moscow was hit by another suspected Ukrainian drone attack this week.
Russia's capital has been increasingly targeted by drones in recently, likely causing more psychological damage than physical.
Ukrainian officials say it's only fair and hint that the apparent attacks will continue.
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Russia's brutal war in Ukraine appears to have once again returned home in what is becoming an increasingly troublesome problem for Moscow.
Several drones swarmed Moscow early on Tuesday in what marked the latest in a string of attacks on the Russian capital. Although the incident caused relatively small amounts of damage, it is the fourth time the city has been targeted in a little over a week, and it comes as Ukraine's leadership and spy agency hint that the attacks are going to continue until something changes.
In a brief statement, Russia's defense ministry said it "foiled" a Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow area by using air-defense systems to destroy two of the drones in the air. A third drone was "intercepted by electronic warfare means," but it lost control and slammed into a building in downtown Moscow, the defense ministry added.
It is the second time in just two days that a drone struck that exact building, which host offices belonging to several government ministries. Photos of the damage after Tuesday's strike show a puncture to the building's glass exterior and a pile of debris in the street below. Russian state media did not report any causalities.
Ukraine did not immediately take responsibility for the most recent attack, but some officials publicly acknowledged the incident and used it as an opportunity to bash Russia.
A man checks the debris next to a damaged office building in the Moscow City following a reported Ukrainian drone attack in Moscow, Russia, August 1, 2023. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
Moscow "is rapidly getting used to a full-fledged war, which, in turn, will soon finally move to the territory of the 'authors of the war' to collect all their debts," Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukraine's Presidential Office, said on Twitter. "Everything that will happen in" Russia "is an objective historical process. More unidentified drones, more collapse, more civil conflicts, more" war.
The Moscow area has been increasingly targeted by drones over the last few months. After a May attack on Moscow, experts speculated that Ukraine aims to give Russia "a taste of its own medicine." These attacks have a psychological impact even when the damage is minimal.
July saw four attacks, and the pace seems to have increased just in the last week alone. An incident on July 24 saw a drone strike a building near the Russian defense ministry headquarters, and that was followed by two attacks over the past weekend.
Despite repeated attempts by Russian President Vladimir Putin to keep the 17-month-long war distant from the Russian people, recent drone attacks on Moscow seemingly indicate the conflict is perhaps closer than the Kremlin would like it to be. Ukrainian officials have suggested that the problem will only get worse for Russia, which they argue deserves what it gets.
"Ukraine is getting stronger. Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia — to its symbolic centers and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address to the nation on Sunday, the same day as another drone attack on Moscow.
Firefighters and a police officer stand next to a damaged building in the "Moscow City" business district after a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, early Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. AP Photo
Although the recent string of attacks underscores Ukraine's ability to strike Russia particularly close to home, it's not an unprecedented situation. Kyiv has managed to attack Russian bases far beyond the front lines and located within Russia's internationally recognized borders on several occasions throughout the war, demonstrating long-range capabilities that appear to have kept the Kremlin on edge.
"None of the representatives of the occupation army and occupation regime, at any point in any corner of its state, can feel safe while an aggressive, insatiable war is being fought against Ukraine," Andrii Yusov, a spokesperson with the Ukrainian military intelligence service (GUR), told the New York Times in a recent interview, openly arguing the legitimacy of striking Russia.
"The only way to stop this kind of thing," he added, "is the immediate withdrawal of Russian occupation troops from Ukraine and the restoration of our sovereignty."
While the Ukrainians have asserted that strikes in Russia, which has lobbed missiles and exploding drones at Ukrainian cities throughout the war, are only fair, many in the West have exercised a more cautious approach to the situation, concerned that Russia may respond and escalate disproportionately. US officials have historically been critical of such actions, although there now seems to have been a shift in tone.
"We have made clear we don't encourage or enable such attacks," a US State Department spokesperson told Insider on Tuesday after the most recent drone attacks. "Russia started this unprovoked war against Ukraine. Russia could end it at any time by withdrawing its forces from Ukraine instead of launching brutal attacks against Ukraine's cities and people every day."
Source: Business Insider
