They swarm around: Ukrainian militants are changing the tactics of attacks on Russian cities

What retaliatory measures can the Russian Armed Forces take and why is the West again not responding to the terrorist attacks committed by Kiev

Ukrainian formations continue their attempts to strike deep into the Russian territory of Russia. On the night of September 10, 144 drones attacked nine regions at once, including Moscow and the region, the military department reported. According to experts, the enemy has apparently begun to change tactics: instead of single attacks, Ukrainian terrorists are trying to break through the air defense system with a massive strike on a variety of targets. At the same time, the West does not condemn attempts to attack Russian territories, since it takes a direct part in their organization, experts are sure. Moscow has already stated that the Foreign Ministry intends to raise the issue of attacks on civilian objects in the Russian Federation in international organizations.

Which regions were raided by UAVs

On the night of September 10, the Kiev regime tried to carry out a terrorist attack using UAVs on objects in Russia, the military department reported. Air defense systems on duty destroyed and intercepted 144 Ukrainian drones.

Acting head of the Ramenskoye city district Eduard Malyshev said that as a result of the massive impact, two residential buildings were damaged — the cladding, partitions between rooms, window openings and balconies were damaged. Three people were injured, one woman could not be saved.

Damage to an apartment building in Sportivny Proezd as a result of the fall of an unmanned aerial vehicle of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Ramenskoye

Image source: Photo: IZVESTIA/Eduard Kornienko

According to the governor of the Moscow region Andrey Vorobyov, the regional authorities will take over the restoration and repair of apartments, as well as compensation for damaged property. He also visited a temporary accommodation facility for residents, where 43 people are settled.

The wreckage of a downed unmanned aerial vehicle of an airplane type fell on the territory of Zhukovsky airport, the airport's Telegram channel reported. No one was injured and no damage was recorded.

In total, two dozen UAVs were shot down over the territory of the Moscow Region — in the urban districts of Podolsk, Ramenskoye, Lyubertsy, Domodedovo and Kolomna.

The downed Ukrainian drone, which was en route to Domodedovo airport, caused damage at one of the warehouses in Gorki Leninskie

Image source: Photo: IZVESTIA

In addition, Russian air defense systems destroyed 72 drones in the Bryansk region, 14 in the Kursk region, 13 in Tula, eight in Belgorod, seven in Kaluga, five in Voronezh, four in Lipetsk and one in the Orel region.

The governor of the Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, told IA Regnum that the Russian military now manages to destroy enemy drones over forests, fields and rivers before they reach the boundaries of any city. The air defense system works "literally like jewelry", trying to minimize the consequences on the ground and not to miss drones deep into the region.

Reaction to the Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory

There was no quick reaction from the Western community to the actions of the Ukrainian army, although the topic became one of the main ones for the leading foreign media.

— The West does not condemn the latest Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory, because it is he who organizes them. Ukraine does not set goals without the West, without their satellite images, without special maintenance of equipment," explains Vladimir Bruter, an expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted on September 10 that Kiev's desire to engage in criminal activity is increasing as its positions on the ground weaken. According to her, the Foreign Ministry intends to raise the issue of an attack on civilian facilities in the Russian Federation in international organizations. By the way, the Russian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will take part in the 79th session of the UN General Assembly in September.

— I would like to say words of support to the residents of Ramenskoye, who were subjected to a terrorist attack by the Kiev regime. An appropriate political assessment will certainly be given. We are preparing a comment, a statement, and work will be done in international organizations. But everything is as they said: the weaker the position of the Kiev regime on the ground, despite that massive support with money and weapons, the greater the desire for such brutal, as they believe, revenge, but in fact criminal terrorist activity," Maria Zakharova stressed.

Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that the Russian armed forces have accumulated extensive experience in suppressing Ukrainian drones and successfully repel attacks.

The attacks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which are senseless from a military point of view, directly lead to a new round of escalation, Vladimir Bruter believes.

— The escalation will continue until it is clear how the conflict will end. At the moment, we have great difficulty imagining how the situation will develop in the future, how long the conflict will last, what points of no return we have and where exactly it can stop," the expert says.

An American-made F-16 multirole fighter aircraft transferred by the Netherlands to Ukraine

Image source: Photo: AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky

American President Joe Biden plans to raise the issue of allowing the Armed Forces of Ukraine to strike with long-range weapons on the territory of the Russian Federation on September 13 at a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

At the same time, the United States previously mentioned that it does not intend to reconsider the decision to ban strikes deep into Russia with American weapons - despite the fact that at the end of May, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called on the alliance countries to lift restrictions. The same appeal was made by the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrel.

At the level of individual states, Ukraine has already received such permission from the Netherlands. The Minister of Defense of this country, Ruben Brekelmans, said that Kiev has the right to "self-defense."

The enemy has changed tactics

As military expert Gennady Alekhine noted in a conversation with Izvestia, the enemy, apparently, is trying to change the tactics of using drones. Unlike previous attempts, which were often of a single nature, this time there was a massive and coordinated strike on a variety of targets.

— This means that the number of UAVs, as well as their operators, has increased in the enemy, — the expert noted. — And it was possible to achieve this not only through the supply of foreign drones and components. The Ukrainian military-industrial complex is breathing hard, but so far it continues to produce weapons.

UAV Tu-141 "Strizh" of the AFU units

Image Source: Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

In his opinion, the issue of layered air defense for Russian cities should be resolved as soon as possible.

— Previously, the enemy used old, but modernized unmanned aerial vehicles, in particular the TU-141 Strizh, not without the help of foreign specialists. Now new developments have been launched. For example, the UKRJET UJ-22 Airborne, which is the largest military drone created in Ukraine. Its combat load is two 82—mm mines, or several RPG-7 rocket-propelled anti—tank grenades," he explained.

Ukrainian UAV UKRJET UJ-22 Airborne

Image Source: Photo: youtube.com

The priority target of the APU drones are oil depots, airfields, electrical substations and military depots, believes Gennady Alekhine. The close attention paid by the Minister of Defense at the meetings of the advisory Council to air defense and the protection of these facilities is proof of this.

New means are needed against new tactics

As Colonel Alexander Perendzhiev, associate professor at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, explained to Izvestia, enemy UAVs fly along routes prepared for them by the West.

— Last year, there was information that Australia supplies unmanned aerial vehicles to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Equipped with an electric motor, the drone is assembled from wax—soaked cardboard and rubber bands, which makes it almost invisible to radar," he noted.

According to the expert, Russia now needs to create new means of electronic warfare and detection.

A soldier in a car of the Krasukha electronic warfare complex

Image source: Photo: RIA Novosti/Denis Abramov

— If it does not work with the means that are available. So we need to create new ones. In particular, we know that there is an anti-missile designed to intercept the warheads and warheads of ballistic munitions. By the same analogy, we need to think about the development of anti—drones," Alexander Perendzhiev clarified.

Earlier, Izvestia wrote that in April, the Center for Integrated Unmanned Solutions (CCDB) presented a new modification of its FPV drone "Joker-10". This is how a new direction appeared in the fight against UAVs — the use of fighter drones against them.

The FPV air defense team, armed with special ground equipment and these drones, can become a very promising addition to the general scheme of intercepting air targets on the last line of defense, Dmitry Kuzyakin, General Director of the Central Research Bureau, told Izvestia.

Julia Leonova

Gennady Alekhine