On the morning of May 30, several districts of Moscow and the Moscow region were attacked by drones (UAVs). Eyewitnesses posted videos of the explosions and the operation of the air defense system on social media. According to the authorities of the Moscow region and the Investigative Committee, there were no deaths or injuries as a result of the attack, several buildings were damaged. The Kremlin called the attack the Ukrainian side’s response to the Russian military’s “very effective” strikes against “one of the decision-making centers”. What is known about the incident and the drones used in the attack – in the Russian media material.
Eight aircraft-style unmanned aerial vehicles were involved in the attack, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Five vehicles were shot down by the Pantsir-S anti-aircraft missile and gun system, another three deviated from the target as a result of electronic warfare suppression.
Before the appearance of official information from the Ministry of Defense Base And Shot wrote that several dozen drones participated in the attack. Baza’s sources spoke of about 25 drones, Shot’s interlocutors – about 32. Telegram channels noted that most of the aircraft were shot down by air defense systems, some of the drones were caught in wires and trees.
Drones crashed into residential buildings at 98 Profsoyuznaya Street, 92 Leninsky Prospekt, Building 1 and Atlasova Street in New Moscow. Windows were broken in some apartments. By data Shot, the drone that attacked the house on Profsoyuznaya Street, was carrying a “KZ-6 shaped charge”. It flew into the 16th floor apartment, with part of the drone, and “fortuitously did not explode”.
The device that crashed into a house on Leninsky Prospekt flew into an apartment on the 14th floor. He was equipped with three explosive devices, they too did not work, writes the chain. On Atlasov Street, the drone crashed into the wall of the 25th floor. In the apartment near which the explosion was heard, there was a family with a five-year-old child, reports Shot. According to the channel, the floor slab was damaged following the incident at the high-rise building.
According to the list which published Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications Alexander Khinshtein, in the Moscow region, drones fell in the village of Ilyinskoye and the village of Timoshkino in the Krasnogorsk district, the villages of Razdory and Romashkino in the Odintsovo district, as well as in the cottage village of Greenfield in the Istrinsky district.
Journalist Farida Rustamova drew attention to the fact that “10 minutes by car” from Razdorov was the residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin Novo-Ogaryovo.
The reaction of the Russian authorities
As a result of the drone attack, several buildings in Moscow suffered “minor damage” informed Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. He did not specify which addresses he was talking about. Two people went to the doctors, they were helped on the spot. Residents of several entrances to two homes were evacuated.
Several drones were shot down on approach to Moscow, said Governor of Moscow region Andrey Vorobyov. He attributed the sounds of explosions reported by eyewitnesses to the work of the Russian air defense.
Russian President Vladimir Putin received direct information about the drone attack from the Ministry of Defense, the mayor of Moscow, the head of the Moscow region, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and other departments, said presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
He called the drone attack Ukraine’s response to the Russian military’s “very effective strikes” on “one of the decision-making centers” on May 28, and noted that the Russian air defense system was working GOOD.
The commission of inquiry opened a criminal investigation into the fact of the attack (article 205 of the criminal code).
The reaction of the Ukrainian authorities
Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said Kyiv had no “direct connection” to the drone attack on the Moscow region. “You know that we are entering the era of artificial intelligence. Maybe not all drones are ready to attack Ukraine and want to go back to their creators and ask questions accordingly,” he said on The Breakfast Show.
On the eve of the drone attack, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said in an interview with the Funke media group that Kiev is trying to have “normal relations” with Russia, as with Poland, Slovakia or Romania. “We don’t need Russian lands,” he said.
Mayor of Kyiv Vitaliy Klitschko after the bombing of the Ukrainian capital on May 28-29 address on the airwaves of TSN to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny with the question “why are the people of Moscow resting”.
“The same could be done for each of them to feel what it means to live in the conditions in which Kyiv has been living for a year and a half,” Klitschko said.
Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Kirill Budanov, in turn threat rapid response to attacks on Kyiv.
“Duck” or “Beaver”. What drones were used to attack
There is no official information on the types of drones involved in the attack. Military expert Dmitry Kornev in a conversation with RBC suggested that the attack used new drones of “virtually homemade production”, which have not yet been identified.
According to Denis Fedutinov, head of the Center for Information and Analysis of New Technologies, several different models could have been used in the attack. In the images taken by eyewitnesses, you can see a relatively new model of the drone, made according to the “duck” scheme, the expert noted. With such a scheme, the horizontal tail of the aircraft is located in front of the main wing.
Same assumption Express Aleksey Rogozin, director of the ANO Center for the Development of Transport Technologies. Duck-type drones are equipped with a power plant with an internal combustion engine, their wingspan is at least four meters, and the theoretical range is 400-1000 km.
“Drone electronic jammers are generally useless for such devices, the only way to counter them effectively is to shoot them down,” writes Rogozin. According to him, the same drones were used in the attack on Krasnodar on May 26.
Rogozin too appointed incorrect reports that among the drones involved in the attack could be a UJ-22 Airborne drone manufactured by the Ukrainian company Ukrjet. In this regard, in particular, writing Shot with a link to the source. Later, the Telegram channel clarified that the UJ-22 could be mistaken for a Cessna light aircraft.
Viktor Sobolev, member of the State Duma Defense Committee, in an interview with Russian media Express the view that the attack used “ex-Soviet drones” improved at the Ramstein military base in Germany. As a result of modernization, they become “flying very low above the surface of the earth with an envelope of the terrain”, so that Russian radar stations do not see them, Sobolev explained.
Russian media special correspondent Aleksey Sochnev believes that Ukrainian Bober suicide bombers or similar drones could have been used to attack Moscow. Bober drones were developed specifically for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and purchased in December 2022 at the expense of the GOVOR HELP charitable foundation.
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