Ex-Russian president suggests surprise response to Ukrainian drone attacks

Ukraine is carrying out attacks on civilian targets in Russia in order to divert attention from its floundering counteroffensive, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has claimed. Commenting hours after Ukrainian drones attempted to strike targets in Moscow and Crimea, Medvedev suggested that Russia’s response should be “unexpected.” 

Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, wrote on Telegram on Monday that Ukraine was starved of any military success and needed to score “informational wins, even if bogus and bloated.” 

“That’s why the [Ukrainian] Nazis and the population recruited by them also find strikes on civilian facilities acceptable,” Medvedev stated. He also claimed there are rising concerns among the Ukrainian public and cited the “impatience” of Kiev’s “Western masters” for battlefield victories.

“Therefore, the Bandera bastards increasingly choose peaceful, civilian targets for their vile attacks. Everyone should be ready for this,” Medvedev warned, referring to the infamous Ukrainian Nazi collaborator during World War II.

We need to choose non-typical targets for our strikes. Not only warehouses, energy hubs, and oil bases. There are other places where they are not expecting us yet. And where the effect will be very significant. 

Medvedev’s remarks followed an attempted Ukraine drone strike on Moscow on Monday morning. The incident involved two UAVs which were suppressed by electronic warfare measures and crashed into non-residential buildings. The attack did not result in any casualties or serious damage, officials said.

The same day, the Russian Defense Ministry said that a Ukrainian UAV attack had hit an ammunition depot in Crimea, adding that Moscow’s forces had downed a total of 17 drones.

Although Ukrainian officials have not officially claimed responsibility for the raids, Mikhail Fedorov, the country’s digital transformation minister, hinted at Kiev’s involvement and promised “more of those” incidents in future.

The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the raids as “another criminal act by the Kiev regime” and said they were pointless from a military standpoint. Moscow “reserves the right to harsh retaliatory measures,” the ministry added.