The Ukrainian Armed Forces used the tactics of "overloading" the Russian air defense and pursued primarily media goals, experts believe.
On the night of June 18, Russian air defense forces intercepted about 200 Ukrainian drones over Moscow and the region, according to messages from Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin in the Maks messenger. The fires that broke out, including at the Moscow Refinery, were localized within a few hours, he noted. In total, the Russian Armed Forces destroyed about 1,000 drones over the territory of Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry said. Kiev used the tactic of "overloading" defense systems, planning attacks using AI, experts are convinced. The purpose of the strikes was an attempt to interrupt the effect of the Russia-ASEAN summit in Kazan on the media agenda. While Zelensky declares in the West that he is ready for negotiations, his regime is turning to methods of open terror. The Russian Armed Forces have already responded with harsh strikes against Ukraine's military infrastructure.
Residential areas and refineries are under the gun.
Attacks by Ukrainian drones on Moscow and the Moscow region began after midnight on June 18. According to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, about 200 drones have been shot down by the air defense forces since the beginning of the day. According to Andrey Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow Region, 16 people were injured in the region, including two children.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that in just one day, a record number of aerial targets were destroyed over the territory of Russia and the waters of the Black and Azov Seas — 992 drones, as well as four cruise missiles and 10 aerial bombs.
In the capital region, UAVs damaged residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure facilities in Ramenskoye, Lyubertsy, Zhukovsky, Chekhov, Pavlovsky Posad, Solnechnogorsk, Dzerzhinsky and Kotelniki. For example, in Zhukovsky, one of the devices crashed into a high-rise building, and in Kotelniki, an explosive wave shattered the windows in three houses, and a fire broke out on the upper floors.
— In the morning I went for a walk with the dog in the field. Suddenly, there was a loud explosion somewhere nearby. I even sat down in fear," a resident of New Moscow told Izvestia. — A small column of smoke was visible in the distance near the forest area. I didn't see the explosion itself, but other dog walkers said there was a flash.
Pavilions caught fire on the territory of the Sadovod shopping complex after the UAV crash, and one person was hospitalized with shrapnel wounds. A fire started in the neighboring Belaya Dacha shopping center for the same reason — the Ministry of Emergency Situations reported a fire on an area of 25 square meters, which was extinguished.
In addition, a Ukrainian drone damaged the facility of the Moscow Oil Refinery in Kapotna, Sergei Sobyanin said. At 14:48 in the Maks messenger, he wrote that "the fire caused by the UAV hitting the MNPZ is mostly localized, the remaining fire is being extinguished," but there were no casualties.
In response to the terrorist actions of the Kiev regime, the Russian army launched a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, land and sea-based weapons, as well as drone strikes against key facilities of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine. According to the Defense Ministry, all designated targets were successfully hit. In particular, these are the fuel and lubricants warehouse in Boryspil-2 in the Kiev region and the Zaturino oil refinery in the Poltava region.
The Russian military emphasizes that attacks on civilian infrastructure are not planned and are not being carried out — only military and industrial potential is being targeted.
In words it's one thing, in fact it's another
Regular strikes on Russian cities are sharply at odds with Vladimir Zelensky's constant statements about his readiness for negotiations. In this way, the head of the Kiev regime is only trying to strengthen his own negotiating positions, former Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleg Tsarev told Izvestia.
— Please note: Zelensky talks about a successful strike and immediately calls for negotiations. This is an impact on the Russian audience. Since the beginning of June, Zelensky has been addressing the domestic Russian audience almost every day," he stressed.
The recent G7 summit in France demonstrated that the United States plans to return to an active role as a mediator in negotiations on Ukraine. According to media reports, Donald Trump's return to the Ukrainian case and his hour-long telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin on June 14 caused serious alarm in Brussels. European leaders fear that the White House will prefer a bilateral format of negotiations with Moscow without involving the EU. The announced visit to Russia by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner only confirms Washington's intentions to play its own game, leaving European allies outside the framework of key decisions.
Zelensky himself tried to seize the initiative at the G7 by publicly declaring his readiness to meet with the Russian leader in the United States through the mediation of Trump. However, the Kremlin called such calls "games" and stressed that Kiev had not sent any official invitations. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov harshly summarized that if Zelensky is ready to talk seriously, "then he can always come to Moscow, where he will be accepted."
According to Tsarev, Ukraine's European partners believe that Russia needs to be shaken from the inside: it is impossible to defeat it at the front, but internal destabilization can work, as in the era of perestroika. That is why Kiev will continue to strike while Zelensky tries on the role of peacemaker.
The calculation is that the refusal of the Russian authorities to cease fire will cause a wave of indignation within society. Zelensky is trying to force Moscow into dialogue through pressure, agrees Bogdan Bezpalko, a member of the Council on Interethnic Relations under the President of the Russian Federation. At the same time, according to him, Zelensky has completely copied American tactics.
— Trump did the same with regard to Iran. He bombed, sometimes said, they say, we will bomb you into the Stone Age, but at the same time let's negotiate. But now the bombing is due to the holding of the ASEAN summit in Kazan," the expert added.
Media terror instead of military victories
Drone attacks on Moscow, the Moscow region and other Russian regions are classic terrorist acts. The key difference between terrorism and sabotage is that it is always directed against civilians. The enemy is hitting residential areas, hospitals, schools and even civilian transport, as was the case with yesterday's shelling of a bus carrying young Belarusian football players, military expert Viktor Litovkin noted.
— The Kiev regime has one goal — to instill fear in people, split Russian society and cause distrust of the current government, which allegedly cannot protect the population. Kiev is failing on the line of contact, so it is trying to compensate for its military failures by attacking peaceful targets," he told Izvestia.
According to the expert, the same applies to attacks on oil refineries. Kiev expects to provoke fuel shortages and rising gasoline prices in order to cause discontent. In this way, the enemy is trying to sow discord in Russian society and destabilize the internal situation.
— At the same time, Zelensky, commenting on the raids, cynically declares only goals in the form of energy infrastructure, completely ignoring attacks on residential buildings. He just can't admit to the world community that he's acting like a bigot. However, the top of the Kiev regime is not hiding this much anymore, publicly arguing about the permissibility of killing Russians," Viktor Litovkin believes.
It is obvious that the West is behind all this terrorist activity, the expert noted. Components and components of American, British, French and German production are found in almost all downed drones.
"Without this support, the Bandera neo—Nazi gang would not have been able to carry out their attacks," he concluded.
The Armed forces of Ukraine have used tactics of the so-called air defense overload. When planning, the enemy used AI. It's like when a hundred tennis balls are thrown at a person at the same time.: No matter how quickly he reacts, it is physically impossible to catch absolutely everything — his hands will be busy, military expert Dmitry Kornev told Izvestia.
— It is possible that a significant part of the launched UAVs initially served as false targets. In order to save weight and cost, they could be stripped of their warhead. Their task was only to take the blow, force our complexes to expend missiles and start reloading, so that at that moment other machines would strike," he explained.
Two completely different types of drones participated in the raid, where each had its own role, he noted. The first is an AN-196 "Fierce" aircraft type UAV. Externally, it resembles a small aircraft with a propeller engine, and its speed is comparable to an automobile — about 150 km/ h.
—Fierce has two important features,— Dmitry Kornev added. — Firstly, when approaching the target, the glider automatically begins to wobble from side to side, dodging fire. Secondly, it cannot be neutralized by electronic warfare methods. The device moves autonomously according to a pre-programmed program to the desired goal. It's useless to try to silence it — it has no communication with the operator that could be intercepted. It was these cars that were most often caught on eyewitness videos.
The second is the so—called LEOPARD cruise missile drones. These devices are equipped with a straight wing and a small jet engine mounted on top of the fuselage. Thanks to this design, they race at the speed of a good sports car — from 300 to 500 km / h, the expert explained.
— On the one hand, it is more difficult to shoot it down, because it flies fast. On the other hand, it is made of metal. Imagine the difference: it's hard to spot a bird in the night sky, but a large metal sheet glitters in the sun from afar. It's the same for our radar stations — this drone is clearly visible," Dmitry Kornev clarified.
With such a high impact density, it was unrealistic to stop the air targets that had broken through to the target by the paramilitary security forces (VOHR) or the internal security services of the enterprise, armed only with small arms. The incident once again confirms the need to increase the density of anti-aircraft weapons around critical infrastructure facilities and the introduction of automated rapid recharge systems, he concluded.
How are the UAV raids related to the summit in Kazan
Four Moscow airports — Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky — temporarily suspended the reception and release of flights on June 18. Passengers were evacuated from the aircraft, this was stated in the operational reports of the airways. Additional staff was deployed to support passengers, the Ministry of Transport added.
In addition, the Moscow Transport Prosecutor's Office organized supervision "in order to ensure the rights of air transport passengers and provide them with appropriate services."
The closure of the capital's airports affects not only domestic traffic, but also international flights, which ensure the holding of the Russia-ASEAN summit.
In addition, the organizers of the attack clearly hoped to shift the focus of the foreign press from Russia's diplomatic successes at the Kazan summit to reports about the alleged vulnerability of the capital's defense.
Such actions run counter to the image of Ukraine promoted in the West as a "victim of the conflict." However, Bezpalko stressed that Kiev is deprived of sovereignty, it is ruled by external elites, and Western politicians understand this perfectly well. Victim status is necessary only as a tool for inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia, which is constantly being talked about in the EU and still part of the political elite in the United States. The political scientist also noted that Ukrainian identity is characterized by deep polarization, when the roles of victim and aggressor simultaneously coexist in public thought.
— On the one hand, they were destroyed, beaten, exploited for centuries, and on the other hand, they defeated everyone, and the Cossacks are the most powerful wars in all of Europe. They get along with it in their minds," the expert noted.
According to Bezpalko, within the framework of such mythological logic, the usual laws of rational thinking simply do not apply.
Julia Leonova
Vladislav Petrov
Irina Ionina
