Everyone is excited that Ukrainian drones attacked a Moscow southern suburb on May 30th, but the excitement is much ado about nothing. Those drones did little damage, according to Russian reports: There were no serious casualties; one building was evacuated temporarily as a precaution.
The drone attacks on Moscow were puny when compared with massive Russian attacks on Ukraine the night before. According to reports from Russia of what happened in Moscow:
“A drone hit the upper floors of a residential building on Profsoyuznaya Street 98. The façade and glazing of the house were destroyed. There were no casualties.”
“A drone also hit a 24-story residential building on Atlasova Street. The façade and glazing of the upper floors were destroyed. There were no casualties.”
A UAV carrying three explosives flew into an apartment on the 14th floor of a building in Leninsky Avenue, but failed to detonate.
Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that in all there were eight drones, of which five were shot down by the Pantsir air defense system and three jammed, thus going out of control and hitting the apartment buildings.
President Vladimir Putin had ordered Pantsir systems installed around Moscow this past January. A Pantsir system also was installed at the Putin summer residence in Sochi. Some of these installations are on rooftops, meaning that the Pantsir vehicles were removed for rooftop installations. By placing Pantsir on rooftops the field of view in urban areas is significantly improved
There is a video of one of the Pantsir units shooting down a drone over Moscow. That drone exploded in a fireball when it was hit.
According to Moscow, the type of drone is new and was produced by the Ukrainians. The Russians estimate these drones are long range and the drone’s wings were located on the drone body forward to allow the drone to carry more explosives.
Ukraine says it had nothing to do with the drone attack on Moscow. Ukrainian authorities also leaked that the drones were Chinese. Last year there were reports of some Chinese drones in Ukraine.
Most of those who saw this attack regarded it as retaliation for the intense drone and missile attacks on Kyiv. Concurrently with the drone attack on Moscow, the Ukrainians upped the shelling across the border areas in the direction of Belgorod, hitting at least three settlements.
The real action, however, was over Ukraine, where Russian drones and missiles pounded Kyiv and a number of other locations.
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