Putin Speaks As Suspected Ukrainian Drones Hit Moscow

President Vladimir Putin of Russia has described as terrorist attack, the Tuesday multiple drone airstrikes on the country capital, Moscow.

It would be recalled a wave of drones hit Moscow, near the country home of the Russia President, Vladimir Putin.

The drones were suspected fired by Ukraine but authorities in Kyiv have denied the allegation.

Russia authorities had said that Ukrainian drones struck Moscow on Tuesday and were shot down.

Ajazeera quoted one Russian politician who described the drone attacks as the worst attack on the capital since World War Two, while Kyiv was hit for the third time in 24 hours.

The wave of drones attack on Moscow is believed to be the first major attack on a residential area in Russia’s capital.

The explosions occurred only three miles from Russian President Putin’s country home, according to close watchers.

According to President Vladimir Putin, the drone attack against civilian infrastructure in Moscow is “a clear sign of terrorist activity”.

Putin said that Kiev has chosen a different path, namely to try to intimidate Russia and its citizens, and attack local residential buildings.

“They provoke us to mirror actions. Let’s see what to do about it,” he said.

Jimmy Rushton from Telegraph news channel gives details as presented below what made Russians suspected Ukraine involvement in the multiple drone airstrikes on Moscow.

It is not only Muscovites who would have been shocked by the large-scale drone strike on the Russian capital on Tuesday.

Western observers have doubted whether Kyiv could threaten the city 500km from its border.

But Ukraine has long been developing its own equivalent of Russia’s Iranian-supplied “Shahid 136” suicide drones, which have been flung at Kyiv time and again in recent months.

A source in Ukrainian military intelligence, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed that there were multiple independent teams of Ukrainian engineers developing their own versions of the munition.

Kyiv has used a number of similar drones to strike targets inside Russia for nearly a year.

Previous strikes had been smaller in scale, with small numbers or sometimes even single aircraft hitting strategic or economic targets. They have included the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, in Rostov, in June 2022, or the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea, in July 2022.

More recently, the same type of drone apparently deployed in the attack on Moscow – a Ukrjet UJ-22 – was reportedly used in an attempt to target a Gazprom gas compression station in the outskirts of the city, just over 50 miles from the Kremlin.

What is different about Tuesday’s attack is its sheer scale. More than a dozen drones were reportedly used, revealing a more mature capability than many believed Kyiv possessed.

It was also possibly hinted at in a statement by Major General Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, promising revenge for Russian attacks on Kyiv.

“Our response will not be delayed. Soon, everyone will see everything”, said Mr Budanov on Monday.

The drones that were filmed flying over Moscow in multiple videos uploaded to social media bear a striking resemblance to the Ukrainian Ukrjet UJ-22 “Airborne’’ unmanned aerial vehicle.

This model of drone – originally developed as a reconnaissance and light attack drone for the Ukrainian military – has a range of 800km, according to Ukrjet – putting Moscow well within its reach from inside Ukrainian borders.

Like the Shahid, it is powered by a small petrol engine and it can carry a similar sized explosive payload.

While Ukraine has been developing numerous versions of the Iranian “Shahid 136” suicide drone, its foreign partners have also been rushing the procurement of a number of unmanned systems. These include the American “Phoenix Ghost”, which has been extensively used by the Ukrainian military over the past year, as well as a number of “complex” suicide drones sent by the British Government.

While simple, slow-flying and relatively easy to shoot down, the unsophisticated nature of the drones such as the UJ-22 and the Shahid 136 are one of their main advantages.

The success of the Ukrainians’ own drone program should not come as much of a surprise, given the country’s proud aeronautical heritage and still relatively advanced industrial base, even after more than a year of full-scale war.

After all, this is the same country that gave the world the largest aircraft to have ever flown, the Antonov An-225 Mriya.

For the Russians, the advent of the Ukrainian Shahid will present a number of immediate problems.