Ukraine Striking Moscow Legitimate, Says Germany: Drone Strikes Launched From Within Russia Itself Says UK

Ukraine’s regular drone strikes on Moscow are a legitimate act of self-defence “within the framework of international law”, Germany says, as the United Kingdom suggests recent drone strikes on Russia were launched from within Russia itself.

More drones have been shot down over and on their way to Moscow, the Russian Defence Ministry said, a now near-nightly occurrence as Ukraine attempts to bring consequences for Russia’s invasion of their territory to their centre of power.

Russia has long criticised the drone strikes against Moscow as being terrorist acts, part of its attempt at narrative control over their invasion of Ukraine, portraying it as essentially a police action rather than a war. But Germany has defended Ukraine’s attacks as a legitimate act of war on Tuesday, with the Foreign Minister — perhaps best known internationally as of now for the ill-fated attempt the Green politician made to take a VIP jet to Australia — condoning them during a speech in Berlin alongside her Estonian counterpart.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Russia attacked Ukraine in the first instance, and the attacks on Moscow are acts of defence “within the framework of international law”, reports Tagesschau.

Kyiv has, as usual, not directly claimed responsibility for the latest drone strikes on Moscow.

Ukraine has long been cagey about its responsibility for attacks within Russia, perhaps because so many of the weapons it now uses were donated by Western supporters with strict instructions they were not to be used beyond Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders. Denials for direct responsibility of strikes has sometimes come in the form of claiming attacks inside Russia were actually the work of anti-Putin Russian partisans, rather than the direct work of Kyiv.

The UK Ministry of Defence appeared to lend some credence to these claims, however, reflecting on the recent alleged destruction of a Russian supersonic bomber while it was on ground at its airbase inside Russia. It is asserted the Saturday attack, pictures in an image from a pro-Ukraine Telegram channel above, that it was likely taken out by a type of drone that had a range too short to have been launched from Ukraine. It must, therefore, have been employed by saboteurs inside Russian territory, the Ministry said.

Discussing the drone strike against a Tupalev 22 bomber in the  Novgorod Oblast, the MOD wrote it was “highly likely” (between 80 and 90 per cent probability) destroyed and, if Russia’s assertion that it was taken out by a “copter-style [UAV]” was true that would mean “some UAV attacks against Russian military targets are being launched from inside Russian territory”.

Remarking that this appeared to be Ukraine’s third successful strike on a base of Russia’s Long-Range Aviation command, the British intelligence digest posited it raised “questions about Russia’s ability to protect strategic locations deep inside the country”.

Air bases are not the only targets. Forces loyal to Kyiv crossed into Russia’s Belgorod earlier this year, a demoralising incursion that may have shaken a sense of safety for those living inside Russia itself. Strikes by so-called saboteurs and partisans have been launched against oil storage facilities and arterial railways essential to resupplying Russia’s war effort in Crimea.