The latest media hype over one of Kiev’s largest aerial attacks on Moscow stems in part from the absence of strict legal liability in Russia for publishing online videos of the raids and their aftermath, according to Dmitry Kornev, a military expert and founder of the MilitaryRussia project.
Unlike Ukraine, which enforces nationwide criminal penalties for publishing information that could aid the enemy, Russia’s restrictions on sharing videos of drone strikes only carry administrative penalties and apply only in certain regions.
In an interview with RT, Kornev said videos showing the impact of Ukrainian drone attacks in Russia are “often uploaded online almost in real time, allowing anyone with access to public resources to monitor the strikes and potentially use the footage to analyze and adjust future drone operations.” By comparison, footage released in Ukraine is “heavily censored and rarely allows viewers to geolocate the sites of military activity.”
On Thursday, air defenses shot down at least 194 UAVs approaching Moscow after the Ukrainian military launched one of its largest drone raids ever against the Russian capital. At least 17 people, including two children, were wounded in Moscow Region as a result of the attack, the local authorities reported.
Some drones made it through air defenses and caused fires, with witnesses reporting large plumes of thick black smoke in several areas in and outside the city. Several UAVs reached the Moscow oil refinery in Kapotnya district in the southeast of the city, where fires broke out and firefighters were deployed to the site. Debris from a downed drone also caused damage to a building at the Sadovod shopping center in southeastern Moscow, while the roof of the nearby Belaya Dacha mall caught fire.
Ukrainian drone raids on Russian territory have intensified over the past year, with Kiev launching hundreds of UAVs targeting residential areas, critical infrastructure, and industrial facilities.
Russian officials have described these incursions as terrorist attacks meant to compensate for the setbacks Ukraine’s military has been suffering on the battlefield.
Earlier this week, Ukraine attacked a bus carrying a Belarusian youth soccer team in Bryansk Region, Russia, injuring eight people, including six minors, and killing the wife of the team’s coach, who was accompanying the athletes to a seaside resort.