June 9, 2026: Last month, the Russian capital Moscow by its largest drone attack so far. Beginning at 4AM on the 17th there were a series of loud explosions. There was considerable property damage and three people were killed and another sixteen wounded. The primary targets were a factory that produced electronic components essential for many weapons and items of equipment. Also hit were an oil refinery and two oil pumping facilities.

As usual the Russian government did not report this attack in state controlled media. Most Russians found out about it on the internet and social media, where there were numerous photos, videos and firsthand accounts of the Ukrainian attack. Muscovites complained that the government had no air raid warning system and refused to build bomb shelters. Civilians took cover wherever they could, mainly in basement and underground car parks. The government would not allow anyone to seek shelter in the subway system. The day after the attack, state controlled media mentioned it briefly.

Independent news organizations did respond, described the aftermath of the drone attack extensively and in detail, and admitted that this would not seriously threaten the Putin government unless Russia suffers a major military defeat. That is a possibility because in the last few months Ukrainian forces have been on the offensive, regaining territory that the Russians had occupied for years. This was made possible, in part, by plummeting morale among Russian soldiers. These troops are reluctant to attack and increasingly refuse to advance. Even when on the defensive, Russian troops try to avoid getting shot and will desert if they have an opportunity. Russian officers have for several years had the authority to shoot reluctant troops. This has happened a few times, until some soldiers fired back, and then fled. To describe Russian troop morale as low is an understatement.

Two years ago the Russian government was trying to keep the reality of the war in Ukraine from the Russian people. Ukraine used inexpensive drones to regularly remind Russians that there was a war going on and that Ukrainian forces could still reach deep inside Russia. In September of 2024 Ukrainian drones attacked Moscow. This attack came in at night, when it was more difficult to spot the drones flying low to avoid radar and visual identification. While many drones crashed or were shot down, there were so many that reached Moscow and attacked designated targets, as well as random ones, to cause many explosions that could be heard and fires that could be seen. This was an embarrassment for the government, who had denied numerous other drone attacks inside Russia.

Even Ukrainian drones shot down caused problems, like temporarily shutting down one of the four airports that serve Moscow and halting traffic on one of the major highways nearby. Crashing drones were often on fire and started fires wherever they fell. The firefighters had a busy night.

Over the previous two years Russian missile and drone attacks on civilian targets have killed or wounded thousands of Ukrainian civilians and left even more homeless. Because millions of Ukrainians have fled the country, there are plenty of empty homes and apartments to house the homeless. Most Russians live outside the cities, many of them in remote rural areas. The non-city Russians comprise most of the soldiers sent to fight and die in Ukraine. That means there’s little symphony for Muscovites inconvenienced by the Ukrainian drones. While the drones attacked many rural targets, these were military or manufacturing operations that were largely idle and empty at night. The damage was very visible to a lot of Russians once the sun came up. The Ukrainians were reminding Russia and Russians that the cheap drones, manufactured in Ukraine, cause a lot of damage in Russia without any Ukrainians killed or injured. The drones are remote controlled or autonomous to deal with jamming. The drone operators in Ukraine are hard to find and usually working and living in bunkers.

The Ukrainian drone attacks are a form of psychological warfare against Russia and its people. Despite regular Russian pronouncements of victories in Ukraine, the drones keep coming and proving that Ukraine is not defeated and still very visibly fighting. In March 2024 Ukrainian long range drones were making attacks on key targets as distant as Moscow, which is 850 kilometers from Ukraine, and St Petersburg at 1,100 kilometers distant. Targets are usually industrial facilities that support the war effort. These include numerous oil refineries and oil fuel storage facilities plus facilities involving specialty steels for tube artillery and tanks. Russia claimed to have destroyed dozens of Ukrainian drones and lost a few oil facilities. There were a lot of Ukrainian drones lost, but that was because they were destroyed by hitting their targets. The drones came in low and slow to deceive Russian air defenses, which had a hard time detecting low and slow aerial targets, especially at night when most of these attacks took place. While the targets were up to a thousand kilometers from Ukraine, the drones could also move north across a corridor that is several hundred kilometers wide. Russian anti-aircraft defense systems could not cover an area that wide and long, especially when the attackers were coming in low and slow in the dark.

Russia tried to play down the effectiveness of the Ukrainian drone attacks by describing rather obvious burning refineries and fuel storage depots as accidents. In early 2024 there were a lot of such accidents and Russian troops in Ukraine had to closely monitor their fuel consumption because fuel deliveries were not as frequent and reliable as they used to be. The Russian fuel facilities also supplied the commercial and civilian market. The commercial users were important because they supply the firms producing goods needed by the military as well as consumers.

The Ukrainian drone attacks also led to disruptions of flight operations at the three airports serving the Moscow region. Russia claimed it shot down 35 drones, which were believed to be all that were involved in that day’s attacks. Ukraine had no comment on details of their drone attacks. Ukraine believes the results speak for themselves. Targets in western Russia were increasingly under attack by Ukrainian drones and the Russian government had a hard time explaining why combustible targets in the region kept exploding or catching fire. Such events were contrary to the official government reports about the Russian war efforts in Ukraine. Russia had not experienced attacks like this on the homeland since World War II, and that was something the Russian government did not want to discuss.