Drone attacks hit Moscow, stirring fury at the Kremlin

Al Jazeera ^ | 30 May 2023 | Staff

[Red Badger]

Two are injured in a rare attack on Moscow as more heavy Russian raids target Kyiv, killing at least one person.

A view shows a damaged multi-storey apartment block following a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, May 30, 2023. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

A multi-storey apartment block damaged during a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, on May 30, 2023 [Maxim Shemetov/Reuters] Published On 30 May 2023 30 May 2023 Correction30 May 2023 An earlier version of this article stated that Moscow is more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from Ukraine. This was incorrect. Moscow is a few hundred kilometres from the Ukraine border. Drones struck Moscow on Tuesday but were neutralised, Russia said, in what one politician called the worst attack on the capital since World War II, while Kyiv was also hit from the air for the third time in 24 hours.

Since Russia invaded its neighbour in February last year, the war has largely been fought inside Ukraine, though Moscow has reported some attacks on its territory and blamed them on Ukraine, including an alleged assassination attempt against President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said two people were injured, but not seriously, while some residents in two lightly damaged apartment blocks were briefly evacuated.

Russia’s defence ministry said eight drones sent by Kyiv were shot down or diverted, though Baza, a Telegram channel with links to the security services, said more than 25 were involved.

Residents in southwestern Moscow said they heard loud bangs followed by the smell of petrol at about 5am to 6am local time [02:00 to 03:00 GMT]. Some filmed a drone being shot down and a plume of smoke rising over the Moscow skyline.

Politician Maxim Ivanov termed it the most serious assault on Moscow since the Nazis, saying no citizen could now avoid “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.

Two weeks ago, two drones exploded over the Kremlin in an attack Russia also blamed on Kyiv and said was aimed at Putin.

Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak denied Kyiv was directly involved in targeting Moscow on Tuesday, though he said “we are pleased to watch” and forecast more to come.

Russia’s defence ministry cast the assault as a “terrorist drone attack” launched by the “Kyiv regime”.

Investigators gather evidence while working outside a damaged multi-storey apartment block following a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, May 30, 2023. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov Investigators gather evidence while working outside a damaged multi-storey apartment block following a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, on May 30, 2023 [Maxim Shemetov/Reuters] In Kyiv, Ukrainian defence forces said they shot down more than 20 Iranian-made Shahed drones on Tuesday.

One person died – reportedly a 30-year-old woman, and four were injured when debris from a destroyed Russian projectile hit a high-rise apartment building causing a fire, Ukrainian officials said. Two upper floors were destroyed with people possibly still under rubble.

Photos from Kyiv officials showed flames engulfing the top of the building.

“The attack was massive, came from different directions, in several waves,” said Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration.

Russia has attacked Kyiv 17 times in May with drones or missiles, mostly at night, in an apparent attempt to undermine Ukrainians’ will to fight after more than 15 months of war.

Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler, reporting from Kyiv, said: “Where I am right now is an apartment block that was hit, the top two floors pretty much nearly destroyed.

“At the foot of this apartment block is a cleanup process. People are inspecting their cars that are damaged, trying to absorb what has happened. They are looking up at the top of the building, the windows are nearly blown up. A lot of [residents] are going to have to leave this building with their suitcases, their pets. Some of them are saying they don’t want to leave, they’re happy they have survived.

“This is the worst nightmare for people here in Kyiv. These attacks have been going on night after night now. This is the third consecutive attack now. People are not sleeping. But every night, when they do go to sleep, they hear those sirens, they hear the explosions and they just don’t know what will happen.”

In Moscow, journalist Yulia Shapovalova, said there was a sense of “calm” in the capital despite the attacks.

“Moscow is buzzing as usual now. People are going to work, public transport is functioning normally, it seems like nothing happened.

“People on the street are very calm, but I should tell you many people in Russia sincerely believe the information they regularly hear on TV, that the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine have been inevitable and that President [Vladimir] Putin, as a great strategist, began it first on foreign soil.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

[Macho MAGA Man]

Yep! That got him in trouble with Ike. You couldn’t trust the reporters then as well. They twisted his words.

[dfwgator]

You couldn’t trust the reporters then as well. They twisted his words.

I wish Patton would have shot that smarmy reporter who asked him, "Are you going to slap anymore soldiers?"

[Wallace T.]

It is possible that the drone strikes were a Russian false flag operation. During the Chechen War, there were attacks on apartment buildings in Moscow that were staged by the FSB, basically the KGB of Soviet days relabeled.

[JadeEmperor]

So, Russkies, Putin promised you stability and security if you gave up freedom.

You now have neither.

[Macho MAGA Man]

Yep but he maintained his cool and walked away. That reporter reminded me of that CNN’s Jim Acosta.

[dfwgator]

Just goes to show the press has pretty much always been ninnies.

[PGR88]

US Empire overthrows Ukraine’s government using CIA trained and funded fringe nazi/Ukraine nationalist groups, instigates anti-Russian brutality, uses Minsk agreement as a fraud and cover to build anti-Russia military forces and bombard Russia oriented regions’ civilians, escalates killing of Russia oriented regions’ civilians, promises ballistic missiles and weapons to be stationed on Russia’s border – and then, to US empire’s outrage and a dozen FR deep-state trolls - for no reason at all, Russia invades Ukraine.

[DesertRhino]

The USSR hasn’t existed for over 30 years. Do you hate Germans for what they did back then?

[MalPearce]

So Ukraine flew, er...

(Looks at wreckage)

8 not exactly top dollar drones 600km into the heart of the, er...

(Looks at crappy council flats)

Area where a lot of rich Muscovy folks live, and, er...

(Looks at the damage)

Detonated nothing that looks any bigger than a hand grenade.

Russia must be running out of weapons for their self gaslighting psyops. Last time Putin pulled a stunt like this, the Chechens got blamed and buildings got heavy damage.

[DesertRhino]

They haven’t done that for over 30 years. And in that time they have made non stop efforts at friendship with us. But DC and London are too homo, too dishonest, and too hell bent on no friendship unless we ruin your economy and foreign policy.
And now they are hostile to DC. But we created that.

[DesertRhino]

Funny you mention the Tsar. He was never once hostile to America. In fact he helped protect us from the British monarchy who has been hostile on numerous occasions…. Including the 2016 election.

[dfwgator]

And yet the Tsar was doing nasty things in Central Europe, especially to the Poles.

[DesertRhino]

We do that and have done it since before they had nukes. And every nuke system was invented by us first. Subs, icbm, manned bombers, manned jet bombers, artillery rounds, short range missiles, cruise missiles, and refusing to forswear first use.

So as for “pointing nuclear weapons…”.

That 60s era is over, and the USSR is gone.

[DesertRhino]

“Bullies, brigands, thieves”…etc? Are you speaking of Russia pushing back against the EU, WEF, London and DC?

[Williams]

Don’t talk to people here like a fool. You have an immoral agenda. Others know that Russia under Putin is our enemy, duh, without having some personal reason.

Not everyone is sold out like you.

[Williams]

I am so sick of the foolery. Now you’re peddling that Britain is the enemy, Russia is the friend.

Bunch of nazi level propagandists preying on the weak minded here.

[Boogieman]

“They haven’t done that for over 30 years. And in that time they have made non stop efforts at friendship with us.”

BS. There were a few years when they made some overtures, then Putin came into power and put a stop to all of that. And since that time, they have continued to be “besties” with every nation on the planet that hates us, and have continued to oppose us at every opportunity. If that is what they consider “efforts at friendship”, they can shove those efforts where the sun don’t shine.

[MalPearce]

Slow on the uptake are you?

The agreement was that NATO and Russia wouldn’t target each other’s cities. Mutual detargeting agreement 1994.

Even now NATO doesn’t have any of its nukes pre programmed to hit targets in Russia. The Minuteman III were set to Pacific ocean-area targets. More recent missiles don’t have the preprogrammed destinations.

This is largely symbolic because it’d take a couple of hours at most to reprogram the target.

But enough Russian officials have suggested that western cities are ALREADY being targeted (copious simulation of attacks, direct boasts), to question whether or not the current agreement is still being honored in Moscow.

Russia pulled out of that agreement years ago,

[xkaydet65]

Did you miss the so called Cold War as well ? Did you not hear of the Russian weapons that killed 58,000+ American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines in Vietnam ? Have you not heard Putin often exclaim that the breakup of the political state that started the Cold War and supplied the weapons for proxy wars, the breakup of that state, the USSR, was a tragedy? No amount of holy bended knee in an Orthodox cathedral can make Putin into anything other that what he is , a Stalinist commisar seeking power.

[Lurker]

“Just out of curiosity, what have Russians done to you?”

Other than killing American soldiers in Korea and Viet Nam? Other than financially supporting Bader Meinhoff and dozens of other terrorist groups the world over? Other than financially supporting several domestic terrorist groups like the SLA?

Why, other than that not much at all.

L