Muscovites were awoken on Tuesday morning, May 30, by the sound of explosions as several drone strikes hit the city. Ukraine has denied the Russian defence ministry’s claim that Kyiv was directly involved in the attack, although an aide to Volodymyr Zelensky said “of course we are pleased to watch and predict an increase in the number of” such incidents. The strikes came one day after Joe Biden stressed the importance of continuing “to give Ukraine all that it needs.”
BBC Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg, who is staying in the northwest of the city, said “this is the first time my morning’s started” with the sound of “an explosion in the distance,” causing windows to shake.
At least one drone was spotted over the wealthy area of Rublyovka, described by the Financial Times’ Moscow Bureau Chief Max Seddon as “the home of Russia’s elite.”
He added that, despite apparent attempts by Russian officials to downplay the strikes (there has, for example, been some debate about the number of drones employed), “moments like this do a lot to sap Russian morale ahead of Ukraine’s expected counteroffensive.”
Reports have described the strikes as “unprecedented,” signaling a “new phase” in the war; “One in which the conflict is now reaching the Russian home front.” (Reports, however, have perhaps unsurprisingly made very little of the fact that recent strikes have directly targeted civilians.)
The early morning assault left two citizens injured and a number of apartment blocks lightly damaged, according to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. Footage shared on social media shows drones flying over the Moscow skyline; in one video, a local was heard shouting: “It’s flying right over our house, bruh! Right [expletive] at me!”
Lawmaker Maxim Ivanov said this was the most serious attack on the Russian city since World War II, declaring that citizens could no longer avoid “the new reality,” in which “you will either defeat the enemy as a single fist with our Motherland, or the indelible shame of cowardice, collaboration and betrayal will engulf your family.”
