Another drone attack targeted Moscow early Tuesday morning, the second such incident of the week and the fourth since last Monday, as Ukrainian operations inside Russia are increasing.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it downed two drones and that a third drone crashed into a Moscow skyscraper after being disabled by electronic warfare capabilities. No casualties were reported in the attack.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said the building that was damaged was targeted in a previous attack. “Air Defense Forces shot down several drones en-route to Moscow. One of them hit the same skyscraper in the [Moscow] City as previously. The facade at the level of the 21st floor of the building sustained damages,” he wrote on Telegram, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.
After the attack, Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Zelensky, wrote on Twitter that the Russian capital city “is rapidly getting used to a full-fledged war, which, in turn, will soon finally move to the territory of the ‘authors of the war’ to collect all their debts.’
Earlier in the week, after the Moscow drone attack on Sunday, Zelensky said the war is “gradually returning to Russia’s territory, to its symbolic centers and military bases.” Yurii Ihnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, said the purpose of the drone attacks on Moscow is to impact those who feel the war is distant.
The comments break from Ukraine’s previously ambiguous policy of not commenting on or denying involvement in attacks inside Russia. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said Russia had intensified its strikes on Ukraine in response, and civilians have been reported killed in some Russian bombardments.
Moscow has accused the West of assisting Ukraine with the operations inside Russia. The US insists that it does not encourage Ukrainian attacks inside Russia but also has not condemned the drone attacks, which have been targeting civilian areas.
I guess a drone attack on a Wall Street building by Belarus would be a proxy equivalent response
Not exactly. A Kremlin-occupied Canada carting out drone strikes on NYC would be proportionate.
Million of attacks by Russian forces in Ukraine. Full scale invasion and annexation of Ukrainian land and you are crying over a few drone retaliations strikes in Moscow.
If you don’t like the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Or start asking your emperor Putin to do so in the name of peace and the antiwar movement and leave Ukraine and the Ukrainian people the F alone.
Full scale invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan, occupation of Syria, destruction of Libya etc.Yes indeed America is a wonderful benevolent empire. The place is fucked mess.
Don Julio has previously stated that he was stationed in both Iraq and Afghanistan but so far he has not elaborated as to what the supposed military objectives were
Simple. The “military objective” was to f*ck up two countries and perhaps get a little goo, oil (and perhaps fire up the opium production again in Afghanistan). As a sidebar, plunk down some U.S. troops in Syria, then steal Syrian oil. Better yet, piracy on the high seas taking Iranian tanker ships, then selling their oil on the open market. Honesty is the best policy, for all but us.
Hah ! Now we know why the US was chased screaming out of Afghanistan..
No mention today on this site about the attack on Sevastopol by Ukrainian naval drones. Can’t risk tankie tears?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/wounded-russian-sailors-evacuated-after-ukrainian-naval-drone-attack-report/ar-AA1eF8XY
There’s been no mention today “on this site” about ANYTHING. The site’s latest news story was published yesterday afternoon, and the next will presumably be published some time this afternoon.
However, a story on the Sevastapol attack is linked from this site’s front page.
Thanks for that. I was unaware.
I’m not sure exactly how the scheduling works here (I’ve never been to Antiwar.com’s HQ, and I assume most other people involved work remotely these days as well).
At one time, it felt like Jason Ditz wrote an article an hour about 19 hours a day seven days a week, but he’s had health problems recently and isn’t one of our news writers at the moment. IHe may be back soon, and I’m looking forward to that. In the meantime, we seem to have switched to a format in which a couple of writers (mostly Dave DeCamp, but also Kyle Anzalone and others) fit the news writing into a smaller daily time frame with fewer in-house articles, then Dave does a video round-up of the previous 24 hours’ news at oh-dark-thirty. I’ve helped fill in a time or two on writing straight news pieces, but not very often, just when someone’s out traveling or whatever, and I do it as assigned, not on my own volition. We had six in-house news pieces yesterday, and offhand I think it’s usually between five and ten. Everything else is just discovered/linked at other sites from the front page.
On the “linking to” side of things, I help with that a couple of days a week, and I happen to work pretty early in the morning on the east coast (I’m up at 4:30am daily, put out a newsletter for a different site by 8am, and have generally done some Antiwar.com work during that early period as well), so that there are some links hanging out waiting to be featured by the time Eric Garris is waking up and sitting down at his computer with his morning coffee on the west coast. My impression is that the people who do that work the other mornings start a little, but not a whole lot, later. And various people add links through the day when they notice something.
But your comment did speak to a perception of bias on our part. I’m not dismissing that perception. I think there are reasonable explanations for it — our roots are in a particular school/analysis of US foreign policy that can make some things more, and other things less, obviously important to us to than others — but I won’t pretend it doesn’t exist at all.
A well thought out answer. I double-down on my thanks.
I know of several Americans who have retired to Sevastopol.
“Another Ukrainian Drone Attack Targets Moscow”
President Putin and many Russians view Slavic Ukrainians as brothers with the same religion.
President Putin and many Russians view Poland as a traditional enemy with an alien religion, Catholicism.
The go slow approach in Ukraine would not exist with Poland. Russia would bomb Warsaw back to the stone age.
Not at all. Pols are Slavic and it was Pols and Czechs who defended our civilization from Romans invasions. They were the vanguard. That’s why Poland is so messed up today.
The only real historical enemy of Slavic civilization is England and today it is Anglo-American empire.
Wasting drones on nonmilitary target way away from the fighting is not going to accomplish a thing.
Sure, the press and Biden will claim this as some great accomplishment but it’s more cartoonish than strategic.
It does seem like a waste, but there are two ways in which it’s at least theoretically useful.
Militarily, every air defense battery that has to be placed around Moscow is an air defense battery that can’t be placed around other, more militarily valuable, targets, like Sevastapol, Mariupol, etc.
Politically, “even Moscow isn’t safe from Ukrainian attacks” is propaganda material — although it can be used by both sides.
Did any of those have the capability to hit targets as you share or are they akin to a Gaza rocket?
I really doubt they do and the propaganda value is just sad.
No real battlefield victories so they throw a few drones at Moscow and act as if those matter.
I doubt the Ukrainian people look upon those as something to get all worked about as we in the West are.
Well, if the Russians are to be believed, they HAVE hit things and done damage.
Just like Russian drones have hit things and done damage in Ukraine.
Their utility seems limited versus LARGE targets unless they’re sent in swarms. Individual drones seem mostly useful for taking out a tank or a truck, not the Kremlin.
But that doesn’t mean the Russians won’t deploy additional air defense batteries around Moscow. People seeing chunks taken out of skyscrapers by foreign aircraft isn’t good for domestic calm and support.
If Russia were like us, Russia would have gone full “shock and awe” leveled Kiev and all of the ports, just h*ll on earth. Hardliners in Russia are just a little upset that was not done.
Well, the most important part is realizing that Russia is not “like us,” if by “us” you mean the US regime.
When’s the last time Russian military spending approached even the same order of magnitude as that of the US?
Even last year, according to the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database, the Russian regime spent less than 1/10th as much as the US.
And it shows.
So the more correct framing might be “if Russia were like us, Russia would have been capable of going full ‘shock and awe’ leveled Kiev and all of the ports, just hell on earth.”
This thing isn’t still dragging out after nearly 18 months because of Russian moral superiority. It’s dragging out because of Russian military inferiority.
So the more correct framing might be “if Russia were like us, Russia would have been capable of going full ‘shock and awe’ leveled Kiev and all of the ports, just hell on earth.”
I don’t think not doing one shows that they weren’t capable of doing one.
Were they also capable of securing Donetsk in six weeks, and just DECIDED to take 18 months and counting?
Regimes don’t choose long-term quagmires. They prefer quick victories — and are also capable of calculating that those victories reduce both their own casualty counts and needless civilian deaths, as well as financial costs and negative economic impacts.
The reason this war is still going on is not because the Russians don’t want it to be over yet. It’s because they’ve proven themselves incapable of ending it.
You forgot to bring up logistics.
But you did assume to know Russia’s war plans so you can say they screwed them up.
Neat trick.
Share something that you can’t possibly know about, their war plans, then declare they are not meeting these “plans”.
The only place I assume I know Russia’s war plans is in your imagination.
But I do know what Russia’s war plan wasn’t: To get bogged down for 18 months and counting with no end in sight.
There’s nothing unique to Russia about the notion that regimes don’t intend/expect fiascoes.
Whatever…so those “6 weeks” was just a tool to be able to use “bogged” down in your postulations about what is going on. To just share your view the situation as “bogged down” would cause more to question your guesses.
“Logistics” must no longer be part of your repertoire…..lol
Yeah, because it’s much more likely that the Russians just WANT the war to go on forever as opposed to winning it. Secret strategery!
You are making wild guesses just like everyone else is but get kind of upset whenever I point that out, don’t you?
In fact you used that 6 week claim as if it was fact to make your descriptor “bogged down” work better didn’t you? You needed to set the stage and pulled that 6 weeks out of no where, did you not?
They are only bogged down until the war ends then others will use a different descriptor to describe why they stopped; will they be wrong not to use your words to describe it better as to why those lines are where they are?
We know you’ll claim they are, won’t you, because you are Knapp and you know….
One has nothing to do with the other. And you don’t know what Russia was choosing to do any more than I do. Maybe location has something to do with it. Maybe they aren’t as heartless bastards as the US. But to say they didn’t do something because they aren’t capable is unprovable and just your opinion.
Yes, it’s my opinion.
But if the Russians weren’t as heartless bastards as the US, they’d have had this war over by now if they could have done it. Longer wars are harder, not easier, on civilians than “shock and awe,” formerly known as “blitzkrieg.” They’re also harder on one’s own forces and one’s own population.
Hitler took France in 40 days, but got bogged down in Russia. Go find a Frenchman who lived in Paris then, and a Russian who lived in Stalingrad then, and ask them which one had the worse experience.
Iraqi civilian deaths in 1991 and 2003 came nowhere close to the numbers ranked up in years of sanctions (1991-2003) and occupation (2003-2011). And a lot more Afghan civilians died during 20 years of quagmire than they did in six weeks of “blitzkrieg.”
So if you’re saying the Russians are slow-walking this intentionally, you’re saying they want to maximize Ukrainian civilian, and Russian military, casualties.
And I don’t think they do.
What I’m saying is that you don’t know that Russia didn’t do a “shock and awe” because they weren’t capable and that comment doesn’t change that. You fixated on my “maybe” they aren’t heartless bastards comment and ran with it. I said I don’t know why they didn’t do a shock and awe. I don’t agree with your opinion. Not because I don’t think it’s true, but because I think that it’s unknowable at present.
It’s not complicated.
The reason Russia hasn’t won the war yet is that Russia hasn’t been able to win the war yet, not that Russia operates on some higher moral plane than any other imperial regime, or that it has some super-special secret strategery to come out of the war better by dragging it out than by getting it done with.
You said yourself that there was more killing after the “shock and awe” by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan. And those wars lasted forever. So, your argument that a “shock and awe” shortens any war or produces more killing is baseless.
It shortens the military phase of the war, as opposed to the occupation/counter-insurgency phase … if there is such a phase.
If the residents of the Donbas really prefer to be ruled from Moscow rather than Kiev, as supporters of the invasion advertise, there would presumably not be an occupation/counter-insurgency phase in that area … if the Russians could secure it. But in 18 months of fighting, they haven’t secured it. Not because they didn’t want to, but because they weren’t capable of doing so.
But if the Russians weren’t as heartless bastards as the US, they’d have had this war over by now if they could have done it.
“Shock and awe” doesn’t lessen the killing as was your premise.
it very much lessens the killing versus an extended quagmire … if you can actually get it done.
I can agree with that.
Not really. I don’t know anyone in Russia who wants to level Kiev.
And I doubt US would have went “shock and awe” (killing millions of innocent people) if we were attacked by Canada or England.
Damaged to what?
These are just like Gaza rockets.
So you actually believe this will cause Russian support to waver and not rise? A few random buildings hit will scare the Russians and cause them to lose support?
That’s a view, perhaps, and the one that most of the reporting tries to show (almost on cue the cookie cutter stories appear with that theme) but I differ.
Wow, you’re right. I should have written that the thing is useful “propaganda material — although it can be used by both sides.”
Oh, wait, I did, didn’t I?
Did I say you didn’t????
Why did you use the phrase “wow, you’re right” as if I had made the accusation you just “answered”?
You really like to read “into” my replies to discover stuff I never shared don’t you?
“These are just like Gaza rockets.”
Only an hour ago you were asking if they were like Gaza rockets. Now you’re saying they’re just like Gaza rockets.
Gaza rockets are, apparently, unguided rockets that have trouble making it the 50 miles from Gaza to Tel Aviv.
These are guided drones that fly 650 miles from Ukraine to Moscow and seem to be able to locate e.g. the Kremlin after doing so.
You’ve gone from asking if a bomb delivered by a robotic vehicle is the same thing as a firecracker thrown by an individual, to pretending that the answer is “yes.”
All I’ve seen are a few buildings hit and you are acting as if this is a military win. These are akin to Gaza rockets because these hits have no strategic military value not that their ranges are similar.
You always seem to assume stuff like I was comparing ranges then you insult me based on your faulty assumption.
Kind of annoying….
But I am used to it.
But perhaps you could knock it off?
Terrorism can be a very effective tool especially if you have large propaganda resources backing. The imperial propaganda machine fully support terrorism. And it is very large. The goal is basically to strike at political and military establishment and call them incompetent. I wouldn’t know but suspect that is exactly what imperial propaganda rags are spewing now.
It may work in the West on these drones but the only thing in Russia’s press will be weeping widows and a few dirty dolls in the ruble (or whatever is available to the talking heads and their camera men to shape their own “propoganda”) while they point out these were randon hits and wonder where they were launched (gets the populace worked up looking for suspicious characters just as we did after 9/11; brings them together fighting the cause ;-).
I’m pretty sure all sides are playing it up for their own purposes.
Sure, it’s the same “never let good crisis go to waste” practiced by all nation states world-wide.
The difference here is that Anglo-American parasites have grown a little terrorist pet in occupied Ukraine. They feed it and support it so nation state dictatorship looks mundane in comparison.
One man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter.
Labels like that are just part of the propagandist’s toolbox to me.
True but besides IRA these isn’t any terrorist organization today that can be objectively classified as freedom fighters. Daesh is entirely funded by Washington and IRA hasn’t been very active lately.
1) Three Ministries makes it a legit target.
2) “It wasn’t clear why the same building was hit twice in a row”.
The Russians claimed the first attack on this building was after they intercepted the drones. Sure seems like the Ukes turned around and hit it again to let the world know it wasn’t “accidental”.
Hahaha. F**k around and find out, for sure!
Legit targets that won’t matter strategically.
Are they actually wasting their high priced drones on targets that won’t stop a tank or artillary barrage?
Seriously if they can hit the same building twice those are not cheap Ukrainian repurposed string trimmer drones but ones that could help on the battlefield but they see more value in a building hit than their meat grinder.
They’re just saying “hi” to the people of Moscow.
There are reports that several oligarchs have apartments in that building. I’d say that makes it a strategic strike.
Killing a few rich guys is better on the battlefield than hitting stuff that is killing their soldiers?
That is a strange way to wage war and usually gets the silly terrorism label if done by goat herders or those in camps but I guess Ukraine needs a victory and this will be it.
I can see why someone would believe a building attack to possibly kill a rich guy is a great way to wage a war….if they realize the war can’t be won on the battlefield.
BTW… who were on the screens?
These were sophiticated Western drones that always has western support behind them usually is real time support. Is this more a NATO operation with a few Ukranians sprinkled in so it can be called a Ukrainian one?
Biden’s hazard pay may have been quite costly on that operation given how many US personal was involved.
And how does that help the cause? Is it worth the retaliation that will be forthcoming? Do you believe no Ukrainians will die as a result of these attacks? Do you care?
It does no matter who in the colonial west encourages what. My impression is bombing mostly civilian targets inside Russia is a solidarity builder throughout Russia, Eurasia, and the global south.
I came here to grill @disqus_6BvJ7DQHVo:disqus for his “slap the other cheek” stance but perhaps you’re right. Kremlin is solidifying entire Eurasia against Anglo-American empire.
US / NATO / Ukraine slaps Putin’s cheek. OWWW
India buys as much oil as Russia can send to them.
I DARE YOU TO SLAP ME AGAIN!
Second slap, Saudia Arabia makes peace with Syria and Iran.
IF YOU DO IT AGAIN I WILL BE UPSET!
Third slap, and Mexico refuses to join US led peace discussion without Russian participation.
Russia is getting a lot of benefits for enduring US led slapping,
Long-term viability vs short-term satisfaction. Logically, yes to former. Emotionally, %$%$$#E$%##%!!!
The comments break from Ukraine’s previously ambiguous policy of not commenting on or denying involvement in attacks inside Russia.
Again, with the stupidity of inviting retaliatory strikes that will be forthcoming. And for what? Maybe ambiguity was the best route.
Deniability is important when you start a war. Biden is getting closer getting his wish. His administration is a criminal syndicate.
Unambiguously civilian targetting, Why hasn’t Washington called them out on this and reported it to the ICC?
The “authors of the war” are the U.S. and the U.K.
Oh no! A few more broken windows in Moscow, launched by a local with a $50 drone kit..
Meanwhile, UA is being picked apart at will, with its grain-exporting options being reduced daily..