Ukraine attacked Moscow on Wednesday with at least 11 drones shot down by air defenses in what Russian officials said was one of the biggest drone strikes on the capital since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022.
The war, largely a grinding artillery and drone battle across the fields, forests and villages of eastern Ukraine, escalated on Aug. 6 when Ukraine sent thousands of soldiers into Russia’s western Kursk region.
For months, Ukraine has also fought an increasingly damaging drone war against the refineries and airfields of the world’s second largest oil exporter, though major drone attacks on the Moscow region — with a population of over 21 million — are rarer.
Russia’s defense ministry said it destroyed a total of 45 drones over Russian territory, including 11 over the Moscow region, 23 over the border region of Bryansk, six over the Belgorod region, three over the Kaluga region and two over the Kursk region.
Some of the drones were destroyed over the city of Podolsk, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. The city in the Moscow region is some 38 km (24 miles) south of the Kremlin.
“This is one of the largest attempts to attack Moscow using drones ever,” Sobyanin said on the Telegram messaging app in the early hours of Wednesday.
“The layered defense of Moscow that was created made it possible to successfully repel all the attacks from the enemy UAVs.”
The attack comes as Russia is advancing in eastern Ukraine, where it controls about 18 percent of the territory, and battling to repel Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region, the biggest foreign attack on Russian territory since World War Two.
Russian media showed unverified footage of drones whirring over the dawn sky of the Moscow region and then being shot down in a ball of flame by air defenses.
Moscow’s airports Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky limited flights for four hours but were restarted normal operations from 0330 GMT, Russia’s aviation watchdog said.
Sobyanin said that according to preliminary information, there were no injuries or damage reported in the aftermath of the attacks. There were also no casualties or damage reported in the aftermath of the attack on Bryansk in Russia’s southwest, the governor of the region Alexander Bogomaz wrote on Telegram.
Russia’s RIA state news agency reported that two drones were destroyed over the Tula region, which borders the Moscow region to its north. Vasily Golubev, governor of the Rostov region in Russia’s southwest, said air defense forces destroyed a Ukraine-launched missile over the region, with no injuries reported.
The Russia defense ministry did not mention neither Tula nor Rostov in its statement listing destroyed Ukrainian air weapons. Ukraine’s military said on Wednesday it overnight struck an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system based in Rostov region.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
The drone attack on Moscow is on a par with the May 2023 attack when at least eight drones were destroyed over the capital in an attack President Vladimir Putin said was Kyiv’s attempt to scare and provoke Russia.
In Kursk, Russian war bloggers said that intense battles were ongoing along the front in the region where Ukraine has carved out at least 450 square km (175 square miles) of Russian territory.
Ukraine launches ‘one of largest ever’ drone attacks on Moscow, mayor says
https://arab.news/9fn5g
Ukraine launches ‘one of largest ever’ drone attacks on Moscow, mayor says
- Some of the drones were destroyed over the city of Podolsk
- One of the largest attempts to attack Moscow using drones ever
Venezuela’s furious street forces ready to ‘fight’ after US raid
- As proud defenders of the Venezuelan leadership’s socialist “Bolivarian revolution,” the ousting of Maduro has left them furious and bewildered, convinced that he was betrayed by close allies
CARACAS: When explosions boomed in the night and US warplanes roared in the sky over Caracas, Jorge Suarez and his companions rushed fearfully for their guns.
For these members of the “colectivos” — armed loyalists of the leftist leadership — the US raid that ousted Nicolas Maduro as their president was the most dramatic challenge yet.
“We’re not used to it — it was like a best-seller, like something out of a movie,” said Suarez, in black sunglasses and a cap bearing the slogan: “Doubt is treason.”
“We took to the streets, waiting for instructions from our leaders.”
As proud defenders of the Venezuelan leadership’s socialist “Bolivarian revolution,” the ousting of Maduro has left them furious and bewildered, convinced that he was betrayed by close allies.
“There is frustration, anger and a will to fight,” said a 43-year-old member of one collective the Boina Roja — which translates to Red Beret — who identified himself only as Willians, in a black cap and hooded jacket.
“It’s still not really clear what happened...What is clear is that there were many betrayals,” he added — pointing to implausible failures in Maduro’s defenses.
“We don’t understand how the anti-aircraft system failed. We don’t know what happened with the rocket-launch system.”
- Policing the transition -
Established in their current form under Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez, the colectivos are tasked with keeping social order on the streets — but accused by opponents of beating and intimidating rivals.
They have closed ranks behind Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s former deputy who took over as interim president.
She has pledged to cooperate with US President Donald Trump over his demand for access to Venezuela’s huge oil reserves — but has insisted the country is not “subordinate” to Washington.
Willians said the colectivos were resisting certain post-Maduro narratives, which he dismissed as mind games — such as “that Trump might bomb again, or that Delcy Rodriguez is with the United States.”
They respect her ideological pedigree — Rodriguez is the daughter of a far-left militant who died in the custody of the intelligence services in 1976.
“I don’t think anyone would betray her father,” said Alfredo Canchica, leader of another collective, the Fundacion 3 Raíces.
“You can betray the people, but not your father.”
Colectivo members declined to be drawn out on how the post-Maduro phase might play out under Trump and Rodriguez, however.
“We don’t believe the threats that the Americans are going to come, dig in and take us out,” said Canchica.
“They’ll have to kill us first.”
- Maduro ‘betrayed’ -
Feared by opponents as a rifle-wielding, motorbike-mounted shock force, the colectivos are welcomed in some neighborhoods where they are credited with preventing crime — and where authorities hand out subsidized food parcels.
Speaking at the Chato Candela baseball stadium in the working-class 23 de Enero district, Canchica rejected the negative image they have gained.
When opposition demonstrators and some world powers were accusing Maduro of stealing an election in July 2014, “we stopped the shantytowns from rising up,” he said.
The colectivos also claim to run sports programs, coordinate with hospitals and transport networks, and visit traders to keep price speculation in check.
Fiercely committed to the “Chavista” cause, they felt the sting of betrayal in Maduro’s capture.
“The betrayal must have come from someone very close to our commander” Maduro, said Canchica.
“It was so perfect we didn’t notice, and we still don’t know who betrayed us, how they betrayed us — it happened so fast.”
In his office with images of independence hero Simon Bolivar, Chavez and Maduro on the wall, and books, bullets and a sound-wave bomb on the table, Suarez bitterly recalled watching animated reconstructions of Maduro’s capture published online.
“It makes you angry,” he said.
“Despite all the support Commander (Vladimir) Putin, China and North Korea have given us militarily, how can we react in real time when (the US) has more advanced technology than we do?“
