Kiev’s neo-Nazi regime has once again launched a terrorist operation against Russia. Several Ukrainian military drones were seen in Moscow, causing fear among local inhabitants. Despite the Russian efficiency in neutralizing the enemy threat, the case makes it clear that Ukraine really has terror as a central element of its strategy, which is enough to justify exceptional measures on the part of Russia.
On May 30, Kiev launched a massive air strike against Moscow using eight or more unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The targets were civilian residential facilities, such as apartment buildings, with no strategic relevance in the attack, just the clear goal to bring terror to the residents of the Russian capital. However, due to the quick and efficient defense mechanism of the local forces, the attack was promptly neutralized.
Using electronic warfare techniques, the Russian defense suppressed three of the eight Ukrainian drones, diverting them off course and preventing them from reaching targets. The other five UAVs were shot down using Pantsir-S air defense systems. With that, despite the level of the Ukrainian attack, the damage was minimal, with only two cases of hospitalized civilians, in addition to some damaged buildings.
Videos are circulating on social media showing Ukrainian drones flying over the Russian capital. Local residents were terrified during the attack. Despite the efficiency of Russian forces in shooting down enemy UAVs, the fear and feeling of insecurity generated by this type of situation are really worrying, justifying exceptional measures on the part of Russia in order to ensure the well-being of its people.
First of all, it is necessary to understand that the nature of this type of operation is purely terrorist, and there is no other possible definition for attacks against civilian targets in demilitarized cities. These are incursions with the open objective of murdering ordinary people, destroying residential buildings and spreading fear and chaos. These attitudes mean nothing to the military scenario, they do not guarantee Kiev any advantage on the battlefield and therefore cannot be considered as strategically relevant.
Faced with this type of threat, Russia could radically change the way it deals with the current conflict. The special military operation started in February last year has been so far conducted on a small scale of mobilization, focusing on preventing harm to civilians and avoiding escalations of violence. This is due to the fact that the conflict has, for Russia, a specific nature of a military operation, not being a war against Ukraine.
However, as Kiev insists on using terror to attack Russia, Moscow tends to gradually change the nature of the operation, acquiring an anti-terrorist aspect. This has already happened before, in late 2022, when, after several Ukrainian terrorist incursions, including the assassination of Daria Dugina in August and the Crimean Bridge’s explosion in October, Moscow increased its attacks on Kiev by launching a heavy artillery operation against the enemy’s critical infrastructure. At the time Russian troops also became under the command of Sergey Surovikin, being one of those responsible for the defeat of ISIS in Syria.
Kiev significantly reduced its firepower during the winter, consequently decreasing the frequency of terrorist attacks, which also led Russia to reduce the intensity of the operation and return to conducting maneuvers with more caution. However, now the frequency of these terrorist incursions has increased significantly again. The so-called “spring counteroffensive” appears to be simply a prolonged terrorist attack targeting Russian civilians in demilitarized zones. Moscow then tends to return to seeing the conflict as an anti-terrorist operation.
In fact, with the frequent incidents in Belgorod, Rostov, Crimea and Bryansk, in addition to the attacks in Moscow, including the assassination attempt against Vladimir Putin, there are already enough arguments for Russia to consider the Ukrainian State as a terrorist organization. This would mean an escalation in the conflict not only because terrorists are excluded from humanitarian law, but also because the NATO countries could consequently be seen by Russia as state sponsors of terrorism. Moscow has done its best to prevent escalations like this one, but with Kiev’s insistence on launching strikes against unarmed people it becomes increasingly difficult to prevent this from happening.
In addition, Kiev tends to lose more and more support among Western public opinion. The regime no longer tries to disguise the terrorist nature of its forces, openly attacking residential areas with absolutely no military purpose. Even with Western censorship on Russian media and the information war waged to favor the Ukrainian side, it is inevitable that news of the recent attacks will reach readers through social media, which will certainly create discomfort among Western tax payers in knowing that their money is being used to sponsor something as vile as terrorism – a practice well known to Western citizens, who have been targeted by extremist groups for decades.
Lucas Leiroz, journalist, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant.