Several Russian regions, including Moscow, targeted by drone attacks: the Kremlin accuses Ukraine and castigates Western support

by time news

2023-06-01 14:45:00

GUERRE – New attacks on Russian soil. Three weeks after the incursion of a drone which targeted the Kremlin, Moscow was the scene on Tuesday May 30, 2023 of a new offensive attributed by Russia to Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin has accused kyiv of wanting “terrifier” Russians. The Kremlin, for its part, accuses the West of supporting Ukraine after attacks “irresponsible”. If this is the case of the United Kingdom, which considers that “legitimate military targets beyond its own border are part of Ukraine’s self-defense”the United States says it does not support attacks on Russian territory.

Shortly after the raids that targeted the Ukrainian capital on the night of Monday to Tuesday, drones targeted several buildings in Moscow at dawn on Tuesday, causing, according to the mayor of the city Sergei Sobyanin, “limited damage” and two wounded, one of whom was hospitalized. An unclaimed attack that Russia attributes to Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Defense was quick to claim that kyiv was the source of these drone shots, shot down according to the authorities.

Drone attacks, a “pleasure” for kyiv

Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of wanting “terrifier” et “intimidate” the Russian population. He praised the effectiveness of Moscow’s air defense system, which worked so “satisfactory”. He claimed the drone strikes suffered by his capital were a response to a strike that targeted Ukrainian intelligence headquarters. “We have already mentioned the possibility of strikes against decision-making centers. The Ukrainian military intelligence headquarters, which was attacked two or three days ago, is one of them. In response, the Kiev regime chose a different way” attacking Moscow, he added.

Ukraine quickly denied any involvement through the voice of Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky. “We have nothing to do with it”he said, expressing all the same “pleasure” with which kyiv “was watching these attacks”of which it provides “the growing number”.

However, it is not the drone attacks in Moscow, located 500 km from the border, which have caused the most damage. Russia said on May 31 that Ukraine also bombed a refinery overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, at the heart of which a fire was declared, and a center for displaced persons, respectively in the Krasnodar and Belgorod regions.

A village in the occupied Ukrainian zone of Luhansk was also attacked. According to the Russian Control Center for the security situation in this region, an airstrike, “conducted with American Himars systems”left at least 5 dead and 19 injured.

London supports attacks on Russian soil, not Washington

Ukraine, which rarely claims attacks carried out on Russian soil or in occupied regions, is accused by Moscow of increasing incursions, which go up to several hundred kilometers from the border. In April, a drone crashed in the town of Kireyevsk, located 400 km from the Ukrainian border. In early May, footage showed a flying craft that looked like a drone heading towards the Kremlin before exploding. The same period, on May 4 and 5, drones targeted an oil refinery located in the Krasnodar region, located 200 km from the Crimean border.

“Irresponsible” attacks that the West supports, according to Moscow. “Western support for the kyiv regime is pushing Ukrainian leaders to commit increasingly irresponsible criminal acts”, reacted the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release. Support that the United Kingdom even expresses publicly. Its foreign minister, James Cleverly, has affirmed Tuesday that Ukraine has the right to strike Russia in self-defence. “Legitimate military targets beyond its own border are part of Ukraine’s self-defense”he told reporters.

This statement, which made Dmitry Medvedev, ex-president of Russia and vice-president of the Security Council of the Russian Federation react, who qualified the British officials “d’idiots”. He warned London against the “undeclared war against Moscow”, claiming that “any of the public officials (British, editor’s note) can be considered a legitimate military target”.

In contrast, the United States said on Tuesday that it did not support attacks on Russian territory. “In general, we do not support attacks inside Russia. We are focused on providing Ukraine with the necessary equipment and training to retake its own sovereign territory”said a spokesman for the American diplomacy.

The date of the Ukrainian counter-offensive “fixed”

The attacks on Russian soil were already raising fears among Western leaders, including Emmanuel Macron, long reluctant to provide kyiv with fighter jets. Washington ended up giving the green light on May 19 to the delivery of American F-16 fighter planes to Ukraine, welcoming a joint initiative by several NATO member countries aimed at training, for several months, Ukrainian pilots on fourth-generation combat aircraft.

Ukraine, which continues to press European countries such as France and Germany to equip it with fighter planes, wishes to have these planes to deal with Russian air attacks and “hit the back lines” troops from Moscow, when kyiv says it is completing its preparations before a major counter-offensive.

In this regard, Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday, shortly after the Russian raids on the Ukrainian capital, that the timetable for the long-announced counter-offensive has been set. “The decisions have been made”does he have declared.

He reacted in a speech air raids on the Ukrainian capital, claiming that “air defenses have saved hundreds of lives”. He added that the American Patriot missiles even enabled “100% downing of all Russian missiles”.


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