Russia said it destroyed all eight of Ukraine’s largest drone strikes on Moscow on Tuesday, pushing the 15-month war to the capital.

Before an expected Ukrainian counter-offensive, drone attacks on oil pipelines and even the Kremlin have intensified deep inside Russia.
Drone debris damaged Leninsky Prospekt, a Stalin-era magnificent avenue, and western Moscow, where President Vladimir Putin lives.

South-western Moscow residents reported loud explosions and the smell of petrol at 0200–0300 GMT. Some filmed a drone being shot down and smoke rising over Moscow.

The Kremlin said Putin was briefed on the drone attacks early in the morning and that Moscow citizens were safe due to Russia’s air defenses and military.
“It is, of course, obvious that this is an attack by the Kyiv regime,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “This must be crystal clear.”

Peskov said Putin was working in the Kremlin and had no intentions to address the nation.

In the early morning incident, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported two injured, one hospitalized. Moscow’s airports operated. None died.

The military ministry said electronic counter-drone equipment diverted three Ukrainian drones and shot down five more, including Pantsir missile systems that defend Moscow.

A presidential advisor denied Kyiv was engaged in the Moscow attack but said Ukraine was enjoying watching and predicted more.
We welcome and expect further attacks. “But we have nothing directly to do with this,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak stated.

The New York Times claimed that U.S. intelligence believes Ukraine was behind the Kremlin drone raid earlier this month. Kyiv denied it.

Moscow has consistently warned that the West is escalating the war by arming Kyiv.

Putin’s reaction to the drone attack, which brought the Ukraine war to the world’s largest nuclear power, was unknown.

Putin has kept the battle in Ukraine distant from Moscow, where life has continued reasonably regularly despite Russia’s largest crisis with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Last October, Russia began attacking the Ukrainian capital with “kamikaze drones,” cheap loitering munitions.

Prosecutors said instances occurred in western Moscow’s Odintsovsky District, where Putin’s Novo-Ogaryovo state home is. Russia’s aristocracy lives in the most costly location.

Russian official television covered the events briefly.

Putin has frequently portrayed the Ukraine conflict as a struggle against an arrogant and aggressive West that risks a world war by helping Ukraine.

The Kremlin calls the war a “special military operation.” The U.S. has stated that Ukraine should not employ Western weapons to strike Russia.

Alexander Khinshtein of the ruling United Russia party predicted further strikes on Moscow.

Khinshtein predicted that Ukrainian sabotage and terrorism would increase. “Defense and security must be greatly strengthened, notably against drones. Finally passing the required laws.”