Stuff Digital Edition

Cleverly backs Kyiv strike in Russia

The British Foreign Secretary has said Ukraine ‘‘has a right’’ to project force ‘‘beyond its own borders’’ after a series of drone strikes hit Moscow’s wealthiest neighbourhoods.

A suspected Ukrainian drone fleet hit Moscow’s wealthiest neighbourhoods in the first apparent attack on civilian targets since the war began.

At least 13 drones crashed across the Russian capital on Tuesday, local time, with the Kremlin lashing out at what it described as a ‘‘terrorist attack’’.

Russia’s defence ministry said eight drones attacked Moscow, claiming that it shot down five and electronically jammed three.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared on television to say Russia’s air defences had ‘‘successfully reacted to the attack’’. However, he admitted there were ‘‘things to work on’’ as the war hit home in the most sheltered areas of the city.

He did not personally respond to the drone strike on the Kremlin earlier this year and has faced criticism for staying silent as the conflict reaches further into the daily lives of Russians at home.

Ukraine has officially denied the attack, though officials took pleasure in the strike.

James Cleverly, speaking in Estonia, said Kyiv striking within Russia would ‘‘undermine’’ Moscow’s ability to continue its war in Ukraine.

The Foreign Secretary’s backing for cross-border incursions represents a break with Washington, which has long warned against them for fear of escalation.

A State Department spokesperson said that the US did not back military action inside Russia ‘‘as a general matter’’.

In Rublyovka, the neighbourhood known as Moscow’s Beverly

Hills, residents were woken by explosions as more than 10 drones attacked the area, according to local media outlets.

Drones were also reportedly shot down over the villages of

Romashkovo and Razdory, less than 10km from Putin’s official residence.

One crashed across the river from the prized community that houses Arkady Rotenberg, Putin’s billionaire friend, and top defence ministry officials.

Another hit the luxury neighbourhood of Grinfield where the chief of Gazprom, the Russian gas giant, has a mansion.

In video footage shared online, a drone can be seen flying over French-style houses in Ilyinskoye, where Anton Silunaov, the finance minister, reportedly lives.

Moscow’s Pantsir air defences were filmed firing rockets to intercept the drones. Not all unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were brought down outside the beltway separating the city from the suburbs, with at least three drones crashing into two high-rise buildings south west of the capital.

One drone flew into a window of a block of flats on Leninsky Avenue, where two-bedroom flats are sold at £600,000 (NZ$1.2 million). The house was evacuated as bomb squads came in to defuse three explosive devices, according to the media outlet Mash.

Russian authorities immediately sought to downplay the wave of drone strikes.

A spokesman for Putin said the strike caused no damage or civilian casualties, blaming Kyiv for the assault in response to ‘‘our effective strikes on one of the command centres’’ in Ukraine on Sunday.

But ultra-nationalist commentators like Yevgeny Prigozhin, the boss of the Wagner mercenary group, could not hide their fury with the military for allowing the embarrassing breach. ‘‘What on earth are you doing, stinky morons?’’

Others gloated that uppermiddle-class Muscovites were finally having to confront the reality of war. – Telegraph Group

World

en-nz

2023-06-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281964612101609

Stuff Limited