Drone Swarm Over Moscow

AFU has an opportunity to reach the borders of Moscow.

Drones are getting closer to Moscow and are already attacking infrastructure in the Moscow region. On March 20, a drone crashed into a power line in Shchelkovo near Moscow. Another drone crashed and got caught in tree branches in Moscow Region in early March, not far from a facility owned by Gazprom. Another case of a domestic drone was recorded on March 28. A resident of the village of Svitino in the Voronovo settlement of New Moscow found fragments of a drone painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag near the railroad tracks. The Russian Defense Ministry claims that the UAVs were Ukrainian-made.

Apostrof writes whether Ukraine has the ability to launch drones of its own production at Moscow and when this may happen.

Drone Swarm

Ukrainian authorities neither confirmed nor denied that the drones that attacked the Moscow region belonged to Ukraine. However, on March 29, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov made a sensational statement.

He wrote on his Twitter page that the AFU may have strike drones with a range of more than 3,000 kilometers. Danilov called them the "Ukrainian Swarm" named after Matthias Rust and accompanied the publication with a photo of the aircraft of the German pilot Matthias Rust, which in 1987, on USSR Border Troops Day, flew over a thousand kilometers to Moscow, bypassing USSR air defense systems and landed on Red Square.

Russian media spread the news from Danilov, noting that he allegedly hinted at the possibility of sabotage attacks by drones deep in Russian territory. Meanwhile, Russian propaganda stated that the Russian Federation allegedly has ample capability to respond to sabotage attacks with drones.

The capability exists, but...

Experts explained to Apostrof whether Ukraine really has the drones that Danilov talked about.

"Ukraine has the ability to reach the borders of Moscow with drones of its own production. This is not a secret," Aleksandr Kovalenko, a military and political observer of the group Information Resistance, said in a comment to Apostrof.

Nikolay Sungurovsky, director of military programs of the Razumkov Center, also confirmed Kovalenko's words.

""In theory, Ukraine has such capabilities. The only thing no money for the production of drones," the expert stressed. "If there are funds and an opportunity to deploy the production of UAVs with a range of 3 thousand kilometers, Ukraine will do it.

"The thing is that it is not safe to produce such drones in Ukraine, because the production can be destroyed by a Russian missile. But it is quite possible to set it up in one of the EU countries," the expert noted.

Therefore, Sungurovsky considers Oleksiy Danilov's statement a fantasy. "This is an emotional statement and we will certainly not shell Moscow from drones. The military facilities around Moscow are another matter," the expert noted.

Danilov's statement about the swarm of Ukrainian drones on Moscow was made as a psychological attack, Aleksandr Kovalenko believes, and it was agreed with the military leadership.

"We see all kinds of incidents with UAVs near Moscow. Fear sees danger everywhere and now the Russian authorities will associate any incident with an attack by Ukrainian drones," Kovalenko said.

Passing Yard

Aleksandr Kovalenko has no doubts that the Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow will be successful.

"They have problems with air defense. To intercept small-sized objects, such as UAVs, short-range complexes are used," the expert explains, "The Russians have Torm-M2 SAMs and Pantsir-S1 SAMs among modern complexes. Tor-M2 (effective radius of coverage is 12 km), 132 pieces have been produced. Panzir-S1 SAM system (effective range 15 km) - 116 pieces. But the majority of such complexes are used in Ukraine to cover Russian troops, thus exposing cities. In addition, such systems are either destroyed or damaged on the front. And they can no longer produce them".

Aleksandr Kovalenko says our it’s a passing yard for our UAVs near Moscow now. Russians know about it. They will be quite nervous after Danilov's words.

"Increased nervousness of the enemy is a good thing," the expert summarized.