Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned: “Whoever, and nevertheless a lot they attempt to destroy, they are going to face many occasions extra destruction themselves and can remorse what they’re attempting to do in our nation.” Those ominous phrases got here the day after Ukraine launched a serious drone assault in opposition to the Russian metropolis of Kazan, 1,000 kilometres from the conflict’s entrance line, with six UAVs hitting residential buildings and a seventh putting an industrial facility.
Drone warfare has been an essential and common function of this battle. The rapid context for the Kazan assault is a tit-for-tat. On Friday, Russia attacked Kyiv with ballistic missiles and in addition fired missiles and drones at different Ukrainian cities, whereas on the identical day Ukraine launched a missile assault on the Russian border city of Rylsk. While Kazan could also be removed from the entrance line, it isn’t a completely shocking alternative: as just lately as April, UAVs struck targets within the Tatarstan area wherein town is situated.
So why did Putin make such bellicose threats relating to Kazan, particularly when the assault didn’t declare any lives? It could have been merely that he was, on the time, addressing the Governor of Tatarstan by video hyperlink and so felt compelled to offer public reassurance. Yet the Ukrainian drone strike quickly shut down Kazan International Airport and led to all mass gatherings being cancelled in a metropolis that holds appreciable industrial and symbolic significance — solely two months in the past, Putin welcomed world leaders there for the Brics summit to exhibit he was something however diplomatically remoted.
