Deluded Putin and his cronies accuse UKRAINE of ‘increasingly reckless behaviour’

A deluded Vladimir Putin and his cronies today accused Ukraine of trying to ‘frighten’ Russians with their ‘increasingly reckless behaviour’ after Moscow was targeted in a drone attack blamed on Kyiv.

Apparently forgetting that Russia has unleashed a series of deadly airstrikes on Ukrainian cities that have killed thousands since the start of the war 15 months ago, Putin claimed Kyiv had chosen the ‘path of trying to frighten the citizens of Russia’.

Several buildings in wealthy suburbs of Moscow were damaged by suspected Ukrainian kamikaze drones, just hours after Putin unleashed yet another volley of strikes on Kyiv.

Putin claimed the attack was in revenge for earlier Russian strikes on ‘command centres’. In reality the Kremlin air strikes have hit residential buildings in Kyiv, causing residents to run for their lives to bomb shelters.

‘We have spoken about hitting command centres (in Ukraine). In response, the Kyiv regime has chosen a different path, the path of trying to frighten Russia, frighten the citizens of Russia and of strikes on residential buildings,’ Putin said.

And Russia’s foreign ministry parroted similar lines, claiming that Western support for Ukraine was ‘pushing’ Kyiv towards ‘increasingly reckless’ behaviour.

‘Western support for the Kyiv regime is pushing the Ukrainian leadership towards increasingly reckless acts, including terrorism,’ the Russian foreign ministry said, adding that the attacks on Moscow was aimed at ‘spreading panic among civilians’. 

Russia’s defence ministry claimed eight drones sent by Kyiv were shot down or diverted, though Baza, a Telegram channel with links to the security services, said more than 25 were involved. It called the incident a ‘terrorist attack’ by the ‘Kyiv regime’. 

And a ranting Putin admitted there was ‘some work to do’ on Moscow’s air defence system in a sign of his growing frustration with Russia’s defences.

‘Moscow’s air defence system worked normally, satisfactorily, although there is some work to do,’ Putin said on Russian television. 

Air defences around Moscow – which as the capital of the world’s biggest nuclear power is already protected by an extensive early-warning system – would be strengthened as a result, Putin said.

A Ukrainian presidential aide denied Kyiv was directly involved in the Moscow attack, but said Ukraine was enjoying watching events and forecast more to come.

‘Of course we are pleased to watch and predict an increase in the number of attacks. But of course we have nothing directly to do with this,’ Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said.

One kamikaze drone exploded in a mushroom cloud near the village of Usovo, which is just down the road from Putin’s official Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside of the capital. 

‘[Putin’s residence] would be in earshot of the explosion,’ one local said.

In the city, explosive drones struck blocks of flats in Leninsky Prospekt and Profsoyuznaya Street about six miles from the centre of Moscow, reportedly wounding several residents and damaging the buildings.

If Ukraine is responsible, it would be one of Kyiv’s deepest and most daring strikes into Russia since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

Tuesday’s early-morning raid targeted some of Moscow’s wealthiest areas including a western enclave where Putin and the elite have residences. Two people were injured and some residents in two lightly damaged apartment blocks were briefly evacuated, according to Moscow’s mayor.

Residents said they heard loud bangs followed by the smell of petrol. Some filmed a drone being shot down and a plume of smoke rising over the Moscow skyline.

The Kremlin, which has launched a series of deadly airstrikes at Kyiv, said there was ‘no threat at the moment’ for the residents of Moscow.

‘Thank God, there were no victims and there is no threat at the moment for residents of Moscow and the Moscow region,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Peskov said Putin was in the Kremlin at the time of the drone attack, which he claimed was in revenge for Russian strikes on Kyiv. 

‘The president’s working day started very early,’ Peskov added. ‘He was receiving information in real time from the defence ministry, the mayor of Moscow, the governor of the Moscow region and the emergencies ministry.

‘It is completely clear that we are talking about response acts by the Kyiv regime to very effective strikes on a command centre (in Ukraine),’ Peskov said, without clarifying where the Russian strike took place.

In reality, Russian strikes over the past few days have hit residential buildings in Kyiv, rather than military positions. 

The attacks on Moscow have raised questions about the effectiveness of Russia’s air defense systems.

A senior Russian politician, Andrei Kartapolov, told Russian business news site RBC that ‘we have a very big country and there will always be a loophole where the drone can fly around the areas where air defense systems are located’.

One of the drones exploded near Usovo village, which is only a ten minute drive from Putin’s official residence Novo-Ogaryovo. Putin was not there at the time of the attack. 

The Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu also lives nearby, as do many of the Kremlin elite.

Earlier this year it was reported that the Pantsir-S1 air defence missile system had been installed near Novo-Ogaryovo amid fears of drone attacks from Ukraine. 

Moscow, located more than 620 miles from Ukraine, has rarely been targeted since the start of the conflict, even though drone strikes have become more common elsewhere in Russia. 

The raid came after Russia launched a pre-dawn attack on Ukraine‘s capital, killing at least four people and wounding 34 others, including two children.

At least 20 Iranian-made Shahed drones were destroyed by Kyiv’s air defence system in Russia’s third attack on the capital in the past 24 hours. 

The buzzing of the drones, which are packed with explosives, could be heard over the city, followed by loud explosions as they were taken down by air defense systems.

The two upper floors of a block of flats were destroyed in the raid, and there may be people under the rubble, the Kyiv military administration said. More than 20 people were evacuated. 

Elsewhere in Kyiv, falling debris caused a fire in a private house in the Darnytskyi district and three cars were set alight in the Pechersky district, according to the military administration.

‘Russia is trying to break us and break our will. To deprive peaceful citizens of sleep and prevent us, the security and defence sector, from preparing to implement important tasks,’ said Ukraine’s interior minister Ihor Klymenko.

Russia has attacked Kyiv 17 times in May with drones or missiles, mostly at night, in an apparent attempt to undermine Ukrainians’ will to fight after more than 15 months of war.

‘These missile attacks of a fairly dense frequency are aimed specifically at exhausting both our air defence forces and our physical and moral strength,’ said Natalya Gumenyuk, a spokesman for Ukraine’s southern military command.

In Russia, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said two people were injured, one of whom was hospitalised, in the early morning attack. The residents of several parts of two apartment blocks had been evacuated but later returned.

‘Early this morning, as a result of the drone attack, minor damage occurred in several buildings,’ Mr Sobyanin said. ‘No one has been seriously injured.’ 

Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the wider Moscow region, later said several drones were ‘shot down on the approach to Moscow’.

Video posted on social media showed what appeared to be a drone being shot down and a plume of smoke rising over the Moscow skyline. 

Russia’s defence ministry said: ‘This morning, the Kyiv regime launched a terrorist drone attack on targets in the city of Moscow.

‘Three of them were suppressed by electronic warfare, lost control and deviated from their intended targets. Another five drones were shot down by the Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile system in the Moscow region.’

 

Russian politician Maxim Ivanov said it was the most serious attack on Moscow since Nazi attacks during World War Two, saying no citizen could now avoid what he said was ‘the new reality’.

‘You will either defeat the enemy as a single fist with our motherland, or the indelible shame of cowardice, collaboration and betrayal will engulf your family,’ he said.

Until now Moscow has been largely a safe haven from attacks in the war with life going on as normal despite the mayhem and misery Putin has unleashed in dozens of Ukrainian cities.

The head of Ukrainian military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov had warned Russia it would see a quick response to the unprecedented drone and missile attacks on Kyiv in recent days. 

‘All those who tried to intimidate us, dreaming that this would have some effect, you will regret it very soon,’ said Budanov. ‘Our answer will not be long in coming. Soon everyone will see everything.’

There was no confirmation that Ukraine was behind the assault on Moscow, which saw drones fly over Rublyovka in the suburbs of the capital. 

Drones exploded in New Moscow and Novaya Riga. One drone hit the upper floors of a residential building at 98 Profsoyuznaya Street, destroying part of the apartment building. 

A second hit a 24-storey residential tower block on Atlasova Street in New Moscow. 

Meanwhile, drones were seen in the sky over villages close to Moscow including Funkovo, Kezmino and Romashkovo. 

Local residents in the Moscow region filmed the drones flying overhead, with one saying: ‘F*** what a moment I caught. The b**** is right by our house. F***! Should I leave here? I just walked out on the roof to check, and they were getting closer and closer.’

Reports said another drone fell near Greenfield village near Moscow. This is where Putin’s prime minister Mikhail Mishustin, 57, resides, as does Alexei Miller, 61, the head of Gazprom.

Telegram channel ChTD said one of the drones was shot down over the village of Razdory.

This is close to state dachas, private houses of officials and businessmen.

Ukrainian drone attacks inside Russia have been growing in intensity in recent weeks. The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence believes Ukraine was behind a drone attack on the Kremlin earlier this month in what was labelled an attempt on Putin’s life.

Ukraine has not publicly acknowledged launching attacks against targets inside Russia. 

Today’s strikes in Moscow and Kyiv came a day after Russian forces fired a barrage of missiles at Kyiv on Monday, sending panicked residents running for shelter in an unusual daytime attack on the Ukrainian capital following overnight strikes.

Debris from missiles intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses fell in Kyiv’s central and northern districts on Monday morning, landing in the middle of traffic on a city road and also starting a fire on a building’s roof, the Kyiv military administration said. At least one civilian was reported hurt.

Ukraine shot down 11 cruise and ballistic missiles fired in the second of Monday’s attacks on Kyiv, said Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Heavy air strikes about six hours earlier targeted the capital, put five Ukrainian aircraft out of action in the west of the country and caused a fire in the Black Sea port of Odesa.

Russia has increased the frequency of air attacks as Ukraine prepares to launch a counteroffensive backed with Western weapons to try to drive Russian occupiers out of territory seized since Moscow launched its invasion in February last year.

‘With these constant attacks, the enemy seeks to keep the civilian population in deep psychological tension,’ said Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration.

On the eastern frontlines, Russian paratroopers and motorised units were replacing Wagner mercenary units in the eastern city of Bakhmut, according to Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesman for the eastern group of Ukrainian Forces.

Wagner began handing over positions to regular troops this week after declaring full control of Bakhmut following the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.

Moscow said it invaded Ukraine to ‘de-nazify’ its neighbour and protect Russian speakers. Western opponents say the invasion is an imperialist land grab in which tens of thousands have been killed, millions uprooted and cities reduced to ruins.

Russia says it is open to resuming stalled peace talks with Kyiv and has welcomed mediation efforts from Brazil and China.

But a top aide to Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv’s peace plan, envisaging the full withdrawal of Russian troops, was the only way to end the war.

‘There cannot be a Brazilian peace plan, a Chinese peace plan, a South African peace plan when you are talking about the war in Ukraine,’ chief diplomatic adviser Ihor Zhovkva told Reuters in an interview last week.