What’s behind the drone attack on the Kremlin? The world is confused, but a Ukrainian businessman wants to know “100 percent”.
Moscow – After the alleged drone attack on the Kremlin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced “actual action”. “It is very clear that the terrorists in Kyiv cannot do this without the knowledge of their ‘protectors’,” Lavrov said on Friday (5 May) on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in south India’s Goa.
On Wednesday, the Kremlin reported an attempted strike with two drones that allegedly targeted Putin. Moscow blames Ukraine for this – and the US for planning. Both Kiev and Washington vehemently reject the previously unproven accusations. Several international military experts said it was possible the incident was orchestrated by the Kremlin itself. For example, to justify further acts of war.
War in Ukraine: Ukrainian businessmen pass judgment on drone incident in Moscow
Ukrainian businessman Volodymyr Yatsenko is now commenting on the case. It was a “quite small unmanned aerial vehicle” that was not carrying explosives, he said Mirror. The explosion was caused by the drone being shot down. Yatsenko saw the reason for the drone attack as “to slap Putin in the face and to demonstrate the incompetence and helplessness of his air defense system”.
The Ukrainian entrepreneur is a drone expert and has self-produced weapons systems. Janzenko also said he knew “100 percent” what the attack on the Kremlin was all about. However, he did not want to make it public, as he expected another attack on Moscow on May 9 and did not wish to disclose any information useful to the Russians.
Ukrainian war: Kremlin drones could have started in Russia, according to US experts
According to US experts, the drone that was shot down over the Kremlin could have been launched in Russia. Supporting this assumption is that flying objects must overcome a number of defense systems in and around Moscow, said Dana Goward, president of the nonprofit Resilient Navigation and Timing, which advocates for safer GPS systems.
Since 2015 at the latest, so-called “spoofing” has been used to protect the Kremlin, in which drone guidance systems are also fooled by GPS interference signals. Therefore, drones that reach the Kremlin can fly without GPS and are instead controlled manually – indicating starts in the vicinity.
Footage of drones flying over the Kremlin is circulating on social media. Government experts, but also analysts who rely on freely available sources, are constantly looking to the films for clues to the flying objects’ origins. According to Reuters news agency, drone expert Goward further explained that the drones could also be pointed at the Kremlin on a specific trajectory and then left to their own devices in “kamikaze style”.
Ukrainian War: Drone launch in Ukraine would be ‘shocking’
“It is surprising that this drone was able to fly all the way through Moscow to the Kremlin without being detected and destroyed,” said BRINC founder and CEO Blake Resnick. He also speculated about doing without GPS control or any kind of communication with ground stations. The relatively small size of the device and the low flight altitude make this possible.
Getting drones to fly long distances without being detected was considered difficult. According to Dan Geter, drone expert at the Vertical Flight Society engineering association, there are only about half a dozen models of larger military drones that can fly more than 400 kilometers – from Ukraine to Moscow, for example.
Few countries produce drones of this size and with this capability. Apart from China, India and Taiwan, there is also Ukraine. Therefore, such flying objects are rather rare. With the start in Russia, the range of drones that can carry out such attacks is significantly greater, Geter concludes. (rt/lp)
