Kyiv (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – A huge drone strike clattered Moscow and its suburbs overnight, temporarily closing Russia’s busiest airport.
Ukraine struck Moscow with at least 34 drones, the largest drone strike on the Russian capital since the beginning of the war in 2022, forcing flights to be diverted from three of the city’s primary airports and injuring at least one person.
How did Ukraine’s drone strike affect Moscow?
The Russian defence ministry said its air defences destroyed another 36 drones over other regions of Western Russia in three hours . “An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using aeroplane-type drones on the territory of the Russian Federation was thwarted,” the ministry stated. Russia’s federal air transport agency expressed the airports of Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky diverted at least 36 flights but then resumed functions.Â
Moscow and its surrounding area, with a population of at least 21 million people, is one of the largest metropolitan areas in Europe, alongside Istanbul. For its part, Russia projected a record 145 drones overnight, Ukraine stated. Kyiv stated its air defences downed 62 of those. Ukraine also stated it attacked an arsenal in the Bryansk region of Russia, which reported 14 drones had been downed in the region.
Ukraine itself the target of repeated mass drone strikes from Russian forces, has attempted to strike back against its considerably larger eastern neighbour with repeated drone strikes against oil refineries, airfields and even the Russian strategic early-warning radar positions. While the 1,000 km front has mostly resembled grinding World War One trench and artillery warfare for much of the war, one of the greatest innovations of the conflict has been drone warfare.
Is drone warfare shifting the dynamics of the Ukraine war?
Moscow and Kyiv have both aimed to buy and develop new drones, deploy them in creative ways, and pursue new ways to destroy them – from operating farmers’ shotguns to advanced electronic jamming systems.
Moscow has created a series of electronic “umbrellas” over Moscow, with further advanced internal layers over strategic buildings, and a complex web of air defences which shoot down the drones before they contact the Kremlin at the heart of the Russian capital. Both sides have turned inexpensive commercial drones into deadly weapons while ramping up their production. Fighters on both sides have reported a visceral fear of drones – and both sides have employed macabre video footage of fatal drone strikes in their propaganda.
