The damage was limited, but the humiliation is real. After five consecutive nights of attacks, Ukrainian drones once again struck Moscow on Wednesday, August 23. According to images posted on social media, a drone hit a building in Moscow-City, the capital's business district, located five kilometers away from the Kremlin. The district had already been targeted a few weeks earlier. The drone "was suppressed by electronic warfare systems and, having lost control, collided with a building under construction in the Moscow City complex" without causing any casualties, explained the Russian Ministry of Defense.

This was not the only unmanned aerial vehicle to hit Russian territory that day. According to local authorities, one of them also hit the Mozhaysky district, 12 kilometers from the center of Moscow. Another one hit the city of Khimki, 20 kilometers northwest of the Kremlin. The border region of Belgorod was also targeted by a Ukrainian drone. It caused the death of "three civilians" in the village of Lavy, in the Valuysky district of Belgorod, said regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov on Telegram.

Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian soil – which were infrequent in 2022 and early 2023 – have intensified since the beginning of the summer, undermining the Kremlin's rhetoric of a "special military operation" confined to Ukrainian territory. According to an investigation by the BBC published on August 23, around 160 unmanned aircraft strikes were carried out in 2023 on Russian soil or in Russian-controlled territories in Ukraine, mainly in Crimea.

"It had been 80 years since Moscow was bombed on a daily basis, so this is a real change in the course of the war, particularly for the civilians involved," said Léo Péria-Peigné, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations. Each time the Russian capital is attacked, the city's airport traffic is interrupted and buildings are preventatively evacuated.

This increase in drone strikes can be partly explained by the rise of the Ukrainian military industry. There were already many local manufacturers of unmanned aircraft before the war. Now they benefit from substantial state support and have reportedly made significant advances in recent months. On Wednesday, August 23, Ukrainian Minister for Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, announced that a copy of the Russian Lancet drone, which is causing major damage on the front lines, had been developed. It will soon be launched under the name of Perun, the Slavic god of thunder and lightning.

You have 54.62% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.