Moscow and the Moscow Region were rocked by a series of drone attacks early on May 30. It was the first such attack on residential areas in the Russian capital and another sign that the military conflict in Ukraine is moving closer to the heart of Russia.
What happened?
According to the Russian news agency TASS, witnesses heard a loud explosion early on the morning of May 30, after which windows of a multi-storey apartment building on Atlasova Street in New Moscow were shattered. Debris similar to that of a UAV was found around the building.
Two other multi-storey apartment buildings on Leninsky Avenue and Profsoyuznaya Street were also attacked, causing windows to be broken in several apartments.
All three buildings are located along the southwestern outskirts of Moscow, in the middle-class area of the capital, the New York Times (USA) said through several videos that the newspaper has verified.
Investigators outside a damaged apartment building after a drone attack in Moscow, Russia, May 30, 2023. Photo: Getty Images
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed that it was a drone attack, which caused minor damage to some buildings. Traffic along Udaltsova Street from Leninsky Prospekt to Mikhail Pevtsov Street was blocked for about an hour.
The area near the village of Pavlovo-1 in the city of Istra in the Moscow Region – where some small fragments of the UAVs fell – has been examined, TASS reported, citing the head of the city of Istra, Tatyana Vitusheva.
Ms Vitusheva also called on local residents not to publish or comment on footage of air defense systems.
Fortunately, no cases required hospitalization, according to Russian authorities, while residents in some affected areas have been evacuated, and Emergency Services personnel continue to work at the scene.
The Russian Defense Ministry accused the Kiev government of being behind the attack on Moscow – nearly 500 km from the Ukrainian border.
At least eight UAVs took part in the raid, but all were intercepted: three were disabled by electronic warfare means, forcing them to deviate from their intended target, and five were shot down by Pantsir-S air defense systems in the Moscow Region as they approached the city. The Russian Defense Ministry did not provide information on what the real target of these UAVs might have been.
A security officer points to a high-rise building that was reportedly slightly damaged by a drone attack, in Moscow, Russia, May 30, 2023. Photo: News24
Workers repair damage to the roof of a multi-storey apartment block following a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, May 30, 2023. Photo: GZero Media
Reaction of the parties
Russian officials and Ukraine's allies appear to be choosing their words carefully when commenting on the attack, The New York Times noted.
According to the US newspaper, Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Ukraine was not “directly involved” in the attack, but was “happy” to watch events unfold across the border. A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, which typically maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity regarding attacks on Russian territory, declined to comment.
While Washington has provided Ukraine with military equipment since the fighting began in February 2022, US officials have made it clear that they do not want the equipment to be used to attack Russian territory, for fear of escalating the conflict.
Following the latest drone attack on Moscow, the US State Department and the White House National Security Council both issued statements on May 30 saying that the US generally does not support attacks inside Russia, but noted that May 30 marked the 17th time this month that Russia has attacked Kiev.
Ukrainian soldiers of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade fire toward Russian positions outside Bakhmut, Donetsk region, May 2023. Photo: NY Times
The UK, another close ally of Ukraine, went further, with British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly saying Ukraine had “the right to deploy forces beyond its borders” to undermine Russian attacks.
However, Mr Cleverly said he had no details about the UAV attacks and was only speaking in general terms.
In Moscow, where the drone attack has raised questions about Russia’s air defense capabilities, Kremlin officials sought to downplay the severity of the incident, with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling it “a clear sign of terrorist activity” and suggesting the attack was intended to provoke the Russian leadership into similar retaliation.
At the same time, Mr. Putin stressed that Moscow's air defense system had functioned normally and stably during the UAV raid, “although there are still some areas that need to be improved.” He said: “It is clear what needs to be done to increase the density of the capital's air defense system. We will do exactly that.”
Andrei Gurulev, a lawmaker from the ruling party, said people in central Moscow were more likely to be hit by an electric scooter than a drone. “We didn’t do too badly today,” he told state media.
Challenge to Russia
Russia is vulnerable to drone attacks partly because of its size—it shares a 1,400-mile border with Ukraine—but also because its air defense radars are designed to detect aircraft and missiles, which are much larger than drones, said Sam Bendett, an adviser for Russian studies at CNA, a nonprofit research organization based in Virginia.
According to the expert, in addition to creating a sense of vulnerability in Russia, UAV attacks can be used to probe Moscow's air defense systems and identify potential weaknesses that can be exploited in other attacks.
Part of the challenge for Russia is adapting the complex air defense system surrounding Moscow to threats from UAVs – products of a new era.
Russia's Pantsir-S1 air defense system was spotted on top of buildings in Moscow, a few kilometers from the Kremlin. Photo: Defence Blog
“Air defense systems near cities are typically set up to detect anything the size of a helicopter or larger,” said Ian Williams, a fellow at the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank. “Small UAVs can carry a radar the size of a goose. So if you’re calibrated to detect suspicious UAVs, you’re going to detect a lot of birds.”
Whether Ukraine was behind the May 30 attack remains unconfirmed, and major questions remain about Ukraine's UAV capabilities.
Hours after the incident, on May 30, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin once again criticized Russian military officials, whom he has long accused of incompetence.
The head of the private military corporation said the attack showed Russia's technological lag in UAV warfare.
“As someone who knows this somewhat, I can tell you that we should have been dealing with UAV programs years ago,” he said. “We are now years, maybe decades, behind our adversaries.”
“What should ordinary people do when a UAV filled with explosives crashes into their window?” Prigozhin asked in an audio message posted on Telegram, adding: “Everyone has the right to ask them these questions . ”
Minh Duc (According to TASS, NY Times)
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