Ukraine: 'Moscow City Attacked Because it is Putin’s Symbol of Prosperity'

Ukraine is deliberately targeting drones at Moscow City as it is the symbol of the prosperity “Putin’s regime” has allegedly brought to Russia, a Kyiv official has told Kyiv Post.

Moscow City, with its glittering collection of skyscrapers on the Presnenskaya Embankment of the Moskva River, is home to various offices, leisure complexes and Russian government ministry offices. 

Russian media outlets shared photos of documents from some of these government agencies that had been carried away by the blast wave after a Ukrainian attack in July.

Following another drone attack on the area at 4 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 18, Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukrainian intelligence (HUR), told Kyiv Post that drone strikes on the area are justified as they “are carried out on those objects that are involved in Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine.”

He said that there is value in targeting Moscow City, a “symbol of modernization, a symbol of new technologies, a symbol of prosperity which has been built by the Putin regime for a long time.”

The huge construction project which began in 1995 has been underway for the entirety of Putin’s time in power and is not scheduled to finish until 2030.

 Yusov said it is being targeted “as a result of Putin's criminal military aggression and genocidal war against Ukraine.”

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Three attacks in Moscow and another in St. Petersburg on Saturday were aimed at shopping malls, post offices and a bank, causing panic and some damage.

Drawing a parallel between Ukrainian drone strikes and Russia’s financial turmoil, he said:

“The same thing is happening now with the Russian economy and the future of Russian society.”

Russia’s defense ministry said its air defenses took down Friday’s drone, but not before it flew unhindered right into the heart of the Russian capital.

“The UAV, after being exposed to air defense weapons, changed its flight path and fell on a non-residential building in the Krasnopresnenskaya embankment area of Moscow,” the ministry said on Telegram.

Earlier this month, Kyiv warned those living in Moscow to expect more attacks, adding that the Russian capital’s air defenses appear incapable of protecting its citizens as the drone war between the two countries continues to escalate.

After a dramatic increase in Ukrainian attacks in recent weeks, Yusov told Kyiv Post, that “the concept of security is increasingly distant from the residents of Moscow.”

Ukraine’s drones have been regularly reaching the capital and causing damage, though in numbers that are so far incomparable to Russia’s almost daily mass attacks throughout Ukraine. 

Yusov suggested that Ukraine could ramp up its drone attacks on the Russian mainland however, saying: “Given the dynamics of recent months, the number, geography and intensity, it would be logical to assume an increase in daily attacks.”