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The Kremlin waved a firm response after the Russian capital was subjected to an attack of unprecedented size, during which eight drones were used. Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the “terrorist attack” and said it was aimed at terrorizing Moscow’s residents, and accused the West of turning Ukraine into “an anti-Russian entity”. Moscow linked the drone attack to the powerful strikes that the Russian army launched on the Ukrainian capital, and the Russian Ministry of Defense revealed that its focused strikes on Kiev in the past two days resulted in the destruction of “decision-making centers”, including the headquarters of Ukrainian military intelligence.

On Tuesday morning, the Russians woke up to news of an attack by eight drones that targeted two locations in the Russian capital, without causing heavy losses. And Russian media outlets suggested that the goal of the drones was to hit a road that the Russian president usually takes during his travels from his residence outside Moscow to the Kremlin, but the air defenses succeeded in shooting down five of the drones using short-range “Pantsir” missile systems, while 3 other drones were diverted. And disable its movement using electronic immobilization mechanisms.

This is the worst incident since Moscow announced at the beginning of the month that the Kremlin was attacked by two drones. At the time, Kiev denied its connection to the events and suggested that Russian opponents had launched the attack. While Western parties alluded to the possibility that the incident was orchestrated by the Russian services to justify expanding the Russian attack on Ukrainian cities and targeting the leadership headquarters in Kiev.

The state news agency “Novosti” considered that the attack on Moscow on Tuesday constituted Ukraine’s response to the intensification of targeting Kiev and other Ukrainian cities in the past days. And it published an appeal addressed by the Mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, to the Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Army, Valery Zaluzhny, on Monday evening, in which he appealed to “target the residents of the capital, Moscow.” According to the agency, Klitschko called on a television program to achieve a “balance of terror”, and said, “The question about this should be asked to Zaluzhny … Why can the Russians terrorize the Ukrainian capital while Muscovites enjoy calm and comfort?”

The attack on Moscow came after new Russian night strikes with drones on the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, which resulted in at least one death, according to the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko.

The attack was an extension of concentrated bombing operations in which Russia used drones and long-range bombers, and Russian attacks continued during the past days on airports and infrastructure facilities in Kiev and its suburbs and a number of other Ukrainian cities.

Terrorist act

And the Russian president said, in statements he made on Tuesday, that the goal of the Ukrainian strikes in Moscow was to “terrorize” the population, describing the attack as a “terrorist act.” He praised the accuracy of the work of the Russian defenses, noting that Kiev “deliberately targets civilians, while all Russian strikes are directed at military installations and sites.” And he took advantage of the occasion to reveal that the Russian forces succeeded in a concentrated strike on Sunday by undermining the headquarters of the Ukrainian Military Intelligence, which was confirmed by the Russian Defense Ministry, details of which were confirmed later on Monday.

Putin launched a new attack on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and said that he deceived Russia with his pledges not to expand to the east and sought to annex Ukraine, noting that the West “has transformed the region called Ukraine in recent years into an entity hostile to Russia.”

In a remarkable reference, Putin said that his country’s army “faced such attacks in Syria, despite the fact that the size of the Russian capital is incomparable with the Syrian cities.”

Reserve the right of reply

Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the Ukrainian forces’ attack on Moscow, according to what it said, and stressed that Russia “reserves its right to take the most stringent measures in response.” “The attacks that Kiev tried to carry out using drones against areas in Moscow and its suburbs are directed exclusively against the civilian population in order to sow panic,” the ministry statement said. “Western support for the Kiev regime is pushing the Ukrainian leadership towards more reckless criminal actions,” the statement added.

It is noteworthy that Russian media linked the attack to what was described as “the escalation of Ukrainian anger due to the successes achieved by Russia by directing strong and focused strikes on infrastructure facilities and decision-making centers in Ukraine in recent days. In addition to announcing the targeting of the Military Intelligence Service, media outlets revealed that the Russian strikes resulted in the destruction of a large part of the port of Odessa, which is heavily used to receive Western military technologies, as confirmed by Moscow.

Sergey Prachuk, advisor to the head of the military administration for the Odessa region, said that the Russian forces had fired a barrage of eight “Caliber” winged missiles at the Odessa region.

However, what is interesting about this targeting is that the port is used primarily to implement the “grain deal” concluded under the auspices of the United Nations.

Russian military expert Vladimir Gundarov said that Moscow sought to direct its strikes with extreme precision to avoid hitting ships loaded with grain, but it hit warehouses containing ammunition, Western equipment and port infrastructure with the aim of disrupting the Ukrainian “counterattack”, which Ukraine is actively preparing for.

And the Russian Information Agency said, today (Tuesday), that the Russian Interior Ministry has placed Valery Zaluzhny, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, on one of the “wanted lists.” The agency reported, quoting the ministry’s wanted database, that the item under which Zalogny is required is not specified.

In the context, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced in its daily briefing on the course of military operations that its forces succeeded in targeting “decision-making centers in Ukraine, where Western intelligence services were planning operations against Russia, and the strike successfully achieved its objectives.”

According to the ministry’s statement, the Russian air strikes and artillery fire of the “West” group hit the points of concentration of personnel and military equipment in Kobyansk, while the actions of “Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups” were repulsed in Luhansk and Kharkiv, and “the enemy’s losses on this axis amounted to up to 40.” soldiers, and the destruction of 3 vehicles.”

In Donetsk, the Russian army’s tactical operational aviation carried out strikes that killed 145 Ukrainian soldiers, in addition to destroying an ammunition depot belonging to the Ukrainian armed forces near the village of Krasnoye, according to information from the Russian Defense Ministry.

In general, the operational and tactical aviation of the army, as well as the artillery of the groups of the Russian Armed Forces, directed strikes during the past 24 hours on 88 artillery units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at firing positions, and points of concentration of personnel and military equipment in 96 Ukrainian locations.