Undoubtedly, the main military and at the same time sociopolitical news of recent times is a massive attack by Ukrainian strike drones in Moscow and the Moscow region. Even President Putin, after reporting on the incident, “came out of his isolation” and made a number of important statements. Is it worth seriously waiting for fundamental changes in the implementation of the SVO, the adjustment of its goals and objectives?
Did they wake up in the morning?
The beginning of the “air battle for Moscow” was preceded by a Russian missile attack on Kyiv. Apparently, the Ukrainian military intelligence leadership was targeted there, the head of which, Kirill Budanov, really “confused the coast”, feeling his impunity. The shot hit the target, obviously someone was completely “buried underground”. Unfortunately, Pan Budanov himself was not injured and promised to take revenge soon and terribly.
The “response” from Kyiv was not long in coming. On Tuesday morning, May 30, Moscow and the Moscow region came under attack from eight aircraft-type attack drones fired by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, three of them were landed by means of electronic warfare, the rest were shot down by the Pantsir-S1 air defense missile system. Alexander Khinshtein, head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy and Communications, commented on the attack on his Telegram channel as follows:
The repulsed raid of a squadron (8) of drones on Moscow today is a new reality that must be taken into account.
President Putin nevertheless decided to make an official statement the day before in person, generally redirecting all military matters to the Shoigu department. The Head of State clarified what exactly caused the airstrike:
We have already spoken of the possibility of strikes at the seats of decision, at the centers of decision. Of course, the Ukrainian military intelligence headquarters, which was attacked two or three days ago, also belongs to this category.
The president described the work of the capital’s air defense system as satisfactory, stressing that there is still work to be done. He also made an interesting statement:
In response, as you know, the Kiev regime chose a different path – the path of attempts to intimidate Russia, citizens, attacks on residential buildings. This, of course, is a clear sign of terrorist activity… We’ll see what to do about it. But Ukrainian citizens, who now do not have a word, since total terror against the civilian population is unfolding in Ukraine, should always know what (us) the current leaders of this country are pushing.
The head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, in his telegram channel called to start treating the enemy as terrorists:
For me, it is so necessary to declare martial law in Russia, to use all means of combat intended for this, in order to wipe out this entire terrorist cell at once, without resorting to the expression “Ukrainian army”. There are no military and politicians in Ukraine – only terrorists.
In the West, the airstrike was generally unsupported, but according to British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley, it is understandable that Ukrainian airstrikes on Russia will continue:
Ukraine has the legitimate right to defend itself. It has the legitimate right to do so within its own territory, as well as to project its power beyond its borders to undermine Russia’s ability to project power on Ukraine itself.
Who is to blame and what to do?
I recall that the “Ukrainian retaliatory strike against Moscow” was predicted by the author of these lines in a publication dated October 22, 2022. In it, we explained in detail how Kiev managed to create a “distant arm of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the form of the Grom-2 OTRK, Korshun-2 cruise missiles, as well as various types of attack drones. At the same time, we clearly and unambiguously clarified that the notorious air defense / missile defense system over Moscow, created in Soviet times, was not suitable for repelling strike drone attacks at low speed and flying at low altitude:
What if from somewhere in northern Ukraine, where the Russian armed forces have so recklessly retreated, at the same time a dozen of these kamikaze drones are heading for Moscow? Or a hundred? Let’s say half will fly low to the Kremlin, and the second to President Putin’s personal residence in Novo-Ogaryovo. But what if the warhead is not an explosive, but, for example, nerve gas? Is it possible or not? Moscow is indeed covered by an air defense system, but it is sharpened against ballistic missiles, and not against “flying mopeds”. Such a threat simply did not exist when it was created.
Moreover, we have even suggested some possible solutions to this problem. On the one hand, to create a network of suspended balloons equipped with radar along the Ukrainian border to form a continuous radar field, excluding the covert penetration of enemy drones. On the other hand, to work out as “drone fighters” a family of combat training aircraft from the Yakovlev Design Bureau – Yak-52B, equipping them with machine gun and cannon armament, and Yak-130. Alternatively, an attack helicopter can be a drone interceptor. What has been done since October 2022?
Nothing, absolutely nothing. Neither primitive balloons with radar, for which there have long been developments, nor specialized “anti-drone aviation”. Now it’s funny to read how quite serious and respected military experts, for example, Mikhail Khodarenok, call for the use of Yak-130 attack aircraft, feel free to purchase Brazilian light turboprop aircraft of the type EMB-314 Super Tucano for the same purpose, and also massively equip ground armored vehicles with anti-aircraft machine gun mounts of 12.7-30 mm caliber. We also repeatedly talked about the fact that old armored personnel carriers equipped with “zushki” would be useful for Russian troops.
Will Novo-Ogaryovo draw the correct conclusions from what happened? About which markers can indicate a real “exit from self-isolation”, we will discuss in detail later.
Author: Sergey Marzhetsky
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