A large-scale early morning drone strike on Moscow Tuesday has left several civilian apartment buildings in the Russian capital damaged with the Kremlin immediately blaming Ukraine for the attacks. It is largely being described as the first attack on the city’s civilian neighborhoods.
Russian officials have reported renewed conflicts and another attack in the border region of Belgorod. Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly been briefed regarding the attack and resulting casualties in the Grayvoronsky district near the border with Ukraine. Officials in Kyiv have denied the attack claiming that Russian citizens from 2 paramilitary groups were responsible for the attack.
After numerous drone strikes over the past 24 hours on Russian soil, including an attack on the Kremlin, several Russian cities have decided to cancel their upcoming May 9 Victory Day parades – a celebration that commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
In the early hours of May 3, two purportedly Ukrainian drones struck the dome of the Kremlin’s Senate building which overlooks the Red Square. According to the Kremlin’s Spassky Tower which can be seen in the foreground of emerging social media videos of the attacks, the first drone struck at 2:27 a.m. with the second hitting at 2:43 a.m. While one drone appears to be destroyed in a cloud of smoke, the second one can be seen bursting into flames above the dome. Russian officials immediately alleged that Ukraine was behind the attacks and claimed that the incident was a failed assassination attempt on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Saturday, Ukrainian forces aggressively shelled a Russian village in the Bryansk region close to the Ukrainian border, with initial reports indicating that 2 people had been killed in the attack. However, the number of casualties has risen as emergency responders have continued to search the rubble for survivors. According to governor Aleksandr Bogomaz, 4 civilians have been killed, with another two wounded in what he said was “as a result of the actions by Ukrainian nationalists.”
According to Ukrainian officials on Thursday, multiple cities, including Kyiv and Kharkiv, came under attack from a “massive” barrage of Russian missiles. Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said that more than 120 missiles had been launched across the country and had been targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Russian media reported Monday morning that a Ukrainian drone had attacked an airbase deep inside Russian territory, killing 3 soldiers. According to reports, the drone was intercepted before debris rained down on the base.
According to Moscow, the British ambassador will be called upon in the “near future” to be presented with “evidence” that the UK’s military assisted with a drone assault on its Black Sea flagship on Saturday. While the Kremlin has not offered up any proof as of yet, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova said, “The UK ambassador will be summoned and will be given the appropriate materials” at some point “in the near future.”
Due to a shortage of missiles, Russia has begun using Iranian Shahed-136 drones in its recent assaults on Ukraine’s infrastructure. The increased airstrikes are retaliation for a Ukrainian blast that severely damaged the Kerch Bridge linking Crimea and the Russian mainland earlier this month.