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

[redgolum]

My people fled the Volga because they were better farmers than the Russians, and that made the Russians violently mad.

So I have no love for them.

But that is why my grandmother was born in Kansas, not Europe.

[statered]

“Gee, they only killed tens of millions of people in the previous century, funded and directed every radical leftist revolutionary movement in the USA and elsewhere, and attempted to topple every other government on the planet so they could enslave the entire human race. But other than that, not too much I guess.”

You do know our very own CIA has done exactly this, don’t you?

[Boogieman]

Lol, no I don’t buy into stupid communist equivalency arguments. The man who shoots back in self defense is not equivalent to the murderer who kicked his door in and tried to kill his family.

[VetoBill]

As soon as the cold war ended we should have scraped the UK and Europe off our shoe and approached the Russian as potential replacement allies.

[statered]

Hey I don’t like the communists either. But I don’t judge our actions by what others do - I judge our actions by my concepts of right and wrong.

But people need to realize the myth of our moral superiority is just that, a myth. We are currently destabilizing many parts of the world. Wait till you see what we do to Uganda!

[Boogieman]

“But I don’t judge our actions by what others do - I judge our actions by my concepts of right and wrong.”

Nonsense. You literally brought up the CIA as a “whatabout” response to what the communists did. It’s just a distracting argument, and nothing more.

If you want to talk about the sins of the CIA, go make a thread about that and I’ll be happy to talk about it, where it would be on topic, and not just a disingenous argument to derail a conversation.

[Seruzawa]

Er. The USSR is long gone. Russia is no longer a communist nation. Authoritarian for sure. But the main nation engaging in direct attack on the US via fentanyl is China. Second is Mexico through facilitating the invasion from the south. That operation leads back to the WEF and Soros and the Intl bankers. Russia is small potato’s, nukes or not.

[Boogieman]

“The USSR is long gone. Russia is no longer a communist nation.”

I might buy that argument when they no longer have a KGB colonel serving as their dictator-for-life. Try it again then and maybe I’ll bite.

[Seruzawa]

Since Russia had a much larger army such an attack wouldn’t have gone very well.

[Seruzawa]

I guess you don’t know what communism is. China is communist. North Korea is communist. Russia is not.

[Boogieman]

“I guess you don’t know what communism is.”

Sure, sure, that must be what it is.

[dennisw]

Yep, I wanted to extract that from them.

You extracted nothing with your lame questioning. You are a Russian windbag and buffoon.

[Macho MAGA Man]

You’re forgetting our superior airpower to their practically non-existent air power. The weather lifting and air support during the Battle of the Bulge saved Patton.

[dfwgator]

It was Patton’s prayer that did it.

[NWFree]

Looks like a BOTTLE ROCKET attack

Lol

[Seruzawa]

What communist economic policies are being forced on it’s population by Pootin’s govt?

[statered]

I’m just saying the moral indignation is bunk.

If folks want to talk “real politik” let’s do it. I am suggesting we have an actual intellectual argument about this stuff.

When people are so emotionally attached to their presuppositions it makes it difficult to do that.

[Boogieman]

“I am suggesting we have an actual intellectual argument about this stuff.”

Then go make another thread where you can have that argument.

[Jim Noble]

Russia is allied with China and Iran -- two countries that are at war with the U.S.

You people crack me up - I mean, if your insanity were not so dangerous it would be funny.

[statered]

I will reply where ever and however I want Miss Manners.

Someone made a statement which I refuted. This is a stinking message board after all. You could have just moved on but now it is you who has derailed the conversation. So you got that going for you lol