Ukraine Attacks Across Russia as Drone Strategy Amplifies – Russia has said that it intercepted more than 400 drones following a major Ukrainian drone assault overnight.
Ukrainian drone attacks reportedly targeted military airbases and port cities in the early hours of Thursday, 3rd September.
Lancet Drone. Image Credit: Russian State Media.
Lancet Drone from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
It marks the latest escalation in Kyiv’s drone campaign targeting critical infrastructure across Russia.
Residential Damage
Ukrainian drones reportedly damaged residential buildings across the Moscow area. In Kubinka – a small town approximately 40 miles west of Moscow, home to a major Russian airbase – an apartment building was struck, causing a fire on the eighth and ninth floors. Ten people were evacuated, according to regional Governor Andrei Vorobyov, with no casualties reported.
Kubinka is also significant as the home of Patriot Park, a large Russian theme park based around Russian military equipment and the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
Settlements elsewhere in the Moscow Oblast also saw damage. In Pavlosky Posad, 40 miles east of the capital, another apartment complex was hit by a drone, prompting evacuations and smashing windows. In the nearby Bogorodsky District, a factory caught fire in a separate drone attack, according to Vorobyov.
Strikes in Sochi by Ukraine
The port city of Sochi was also attacked by Ukrainian drones on Thursday morning. Monitoring channels reported pockets of black smoke rising from the port on the Black Sea.
“The port was attacked by an unmanned boat,” wrote the Ukrainian Telegram channel Exilenova+. “Whether the target was a Pantsir missile system or a radar station is unknown. There are essentially no other targets there. Perhaps only patrol boats.”
The same channel later reported that the target of the morning attack was a Russian multipurpose supply vessel.
Neither the regional governor nor the mayor of Sochi confirmed the assaults.
Hundreds of Drones
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had intercepted 416 drones across Russia and Crimea overnight. In Moscow, local mayor Sergei Sobyanin said more than 100 drones flying towards the capital had been destroyed by air defenses since Wednesday evening. Authorities in the Belgorod region, meanwhile, said a civilian had been killed in Ukrainian attacks over the previous 24-hour period. They later added on Thursday that a bus passenger had been killed by a drone.
The attacks come only a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Russian airlines and insurance companies against believing Russian airspace is safe.
“Today, we want to warn every airline that uses Russian airspace, every insurer, everyone who still uses key Russian airports: the Russian sky is becoming completely dangerous,” Zelensky said on Tuesday evening.
Although Kyiv has brought disruption to everyday Russian life as a result of its enemy’s full-scale invasion, Zelensky has long maintained that his country’s armed forces are not targeting civilians specifically – something he reiterated on Tuesday night.
“Ukraine does not threaten civilian aviation as such – not a single civilian aircraft,” the Ukrainian President continued, adding that he did not desire a loss of innocent lives. “There will simply be drones in Russia’s skies that have to be taken into account.”
Ukraine’s Drone Strategy
Under attack from an aggressor, Ukraine’s air defenses have been stretched over the past four and a half years amid persistent aerial assaults. A worldwide shortage of Patriot air defense systems, along with Russian technological advancements to its drones, means the country is unable to defend its skies as well as it previously could.
With Russia making incremental gains in Ukraine’s east and continuing to attack by air, Kyiv has increased its assaults on Russian assets over the past year.
This appears to be a multiple-fold strategy. Energy infrastructure, for example, plays a key role in Russia’s war effort. In the face of heavy international sanctions, Russia continues to trade with several states, providing cheap oil and gas to fund its ongoing war.
These attacks are not only hampering Russia’s economy. Transport and communication facilities are also among those that have been targeted, disrupting Russian supply lines as Moscow races to resupply heavy losses in eastern Ukraine.
There is also the factor of bringing the war, which many once expected to be confined to the borders of Ukraine, home to the Russian people. Logistics factories, including Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, have been subject to aerial assaults in recent months. This strategy has seen morale plummet in Russia as the country faces fuel shortages and disruption to everyday life – notwithstanding the loss of loved ones in a war well into its fifth year.
About the Author: Shay Bottomley
Shay Bottomley is a British journalist. He has written for the Western Standard, Business Insider, Maidenhead Advertiser, Slough Express, Windsor Express, Berkshire Live and Southend Echo.
