War against Ukraine: Why was Moscow attacked by drones and who was behind it?

The attack is the first multiple drone assault on Russia

When Moscovians took to social media to lament a drone attack that caused minor damage to buildings in their city, Ukrainians were not impressed.

"Shock and anger of Moscow residents at ‘allegedly’ Ukraine-sent UAVs is just baffling to me,” said Ukrainian journalist Anastasiia Lapatina on Twitter.

“Y’all thought you can bomb our cities to the ground, rape, torture, and kill thousands of people, kidnap our children, and get nothing in return? Really??”

A specialist inspects the damaged facade of a multi-storey apartment building after a reported drone attack in Moscow on Tuesday. Picture: AFP via Getty Images

Her comments referred to Tuesday morning’s drone attack on residential neighbourhoods in Moscow – just over 300 miles from the Ukrainian border.

The Russian defence ministry claimed five drones were shot down and the systems of three others were jammed, causing them to veer off course. There was minimal damage to apartment blocks in a wealthy Moscow suburb.

It called the incident, which comes weeks after a single drone appeared to target the Kremlin, a "terrorist attack" by the "Kyiv regime". Russian president Vladimir Putin himself has warned the attack was an attempt to “frighten Russians”. Ukraine has publicly denied involvement.

Questions have been raised as to whether the assault came from Ukraine itself; from a group of dissident Russians opposed to the war; or if it could be a “false flag” attack by Russia, aimed at generating higher levels of domestic support for the war, which the Kremlin still calls a “special military operation”.

It followed a barrage of Russian missiles aimed at Kyiv in recent days. At the weekend, the Ukrainian capital suffered its heaviest drone attack since the beginning of the war, while on Monday, an unusual attack targeted the city centre during the day.

Yet if Ukraine is not linked to the attacks, the timing is unfortunate.

On Monday, the head of Ukraine's military intelligence, General Kyrylo Budanov, warned of a swift response to the recent missile strikes on Kyiv, telling Russia, “You will regret it very soon.”

"Our answer will not be long,” he added, hours before drones appeared over Moscow.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, insisted his government was not “directly involved”, but said he was “happy” to watch. Former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko said he wanted to “send a message” to Russians to warn there would be “no safe place” within their country, but denied Ukraine had anything to do with the attack.

Dr Steven Main, of the Russian Military Studies Office (RMSO) in Bathgate, said the scale of the attack did point to a state actor, although he stressed it was “not impossible” that it could have been carried out by a dissident group.

"As far as Moscow is concerned, Ukraine is behind it,” he said. “Moscow would argue that it is a state that has that kind of capability, not a dissident group.”

Dr Main said he believed Ukraine was being “held back” by the US and other Western allies in terms of its aggression towards Russia. The White House has publicly said it does not encourage attacks inside the Russian Federation.

"I would think they [the US] will be having a quiet word with Zelensky just to say, ‘listen lad, we’re not in favour of this’,” said Dr Main. “They’ll say ‘don’t push Russia into feeling like there’s a real, direct threat’.”