It’s a familiar routine for Ukrainians: Explosions ring out in the city, then videos emerge of drones overhead. Air defenses spring into action, and the authorities put out preliminary statements confirming a strike.
But this time, the shattered glass and concrete is in the Russian capital, not Kyiv. Russia’s war on Ukraine, it seems, has come home to Moscow.
Here’s what we know so far. On Tuesday morning, a wave of drone strikes hit the Russian capital. According to state news agency RIA-Novosti, one unmanned aerial vehicle struck the upper floors of a residential high-rise in southwestern Moscow, damaging the facade of the building. Another hit a flat on the 14th floor of an apartment building on Leninsky Prospekt, one of the city’s main arteries.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin gave updates on Telegram, telling residents that emergency services were on the scene and that two people were injured, with none hospitalized. A few hours later, Sobyanin said residents evacuated from apartment buildings hit by drones were returning home.
But it’s unlikely that Moscow can return to its uneasy status quo of life during what the Kremlin euphemistically refers to as the “special military operation” in Ukraine. Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of last year, most of Russia has been spared the kinds of scenes that Ukrainians routinely endure.
In the months since, regions of Russia bordering Ukraine have come under fire, with local officials reporting occasional shelling by the Ukrainian side. The Kremlin accused Ukrainian helicopters of striking inside Russian territory Friday, claims Kyiv neither confirmed nor denied.
And earlier this month, drones penetrated the rings of security surrounding the Kremlin, the very seat of power in Russia.
Read the full analysis here.