Ukraine attacks another Russian region with UAVs. How will Moscow respond?

On August 3, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) made an attempt to attack the territory of the Kaluga region of Russia (only 200 kilometres from Moscow) with unmanned aerial vehicles. All six drones were shot down. No destruction was reported, no one was hurt.

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Russian air defences shot down six Ukrainian UAVs as the drones were flying over the territory of the Kaluga region. Neither damage not casualties were reported, Kaluga Governor Vladislav Shapsha wrote at 8:30 am.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation later confirmed the information.

Some time later it was reported that another, seventh drone was detected and shot down by the air defence system.

Vladimir Dzhabarov, a Senator of Russia's Federation Council, said that such actions were connected with the failure of the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"In my opinion, this is the agony of the Ukrainian military machine. They are trying to show it to the West that all the spending on Ukrainian defence is justified and that they actively oppose and attack Russia. However, military experts, even in the United States, realise that Ukraine is failing," he told lenta. ru news site.

How to deal with such attacks?

Pravda.Ru asked an expert opinion from Oleg Ivannikov, a reserve colonel.

"Russia has a very high level of air security. There are several air defence lines, and one of them is located in the Kaluga region […] Russian air defences have all technical innovations to detect and destroy enemy drones. The difficulty is that there are also new drone models made of composite materials with stealth technology. They pay a lot of attention to this type of drones in the West so that they could overcome Russian air defences," the expert said.

There are several lines of defence in Russia: in Bryansk, Kursk, Belgorod, Kaluga and the Moscow region.

"The most difficult thing is to detect the target. In most cases, drones are very hard to see on radar screens, they are also very small targets, and one can make a mistake. Russian military personnel undergo years of training at specialised military educational institutions to protect the Russian skies," he said.

Igor Gerasimov, a security expert and military analyst, also shared his point of view about drone attacks.

"The air defence system built around Moscow is designed for large aircraft, such as airplanes, helicopters, cruise missiles and other similar aircraft. UAVs are small targets. Modern means of defence that we previously had do not respond to such targets. They may take them for birds at times. In order to introduce new technologies, we come across problems in the existing bureaucratic system," Gerasimov told Pravda.Ru.

"There are two ways to destroy them: either shoot them down with the help of anti-aircraft weapons, such as rockets, coaxial machine guns or we can use optoelectronic means of suppression in the form of combat lasers. This is a very effective weapon that relates to electronic warfare. Electronic warfare and air defence are the two ways. Of course, there is also the work of security agencies as they need to identify where the drones are launched from," the analyst said.

Previous drone attacks:

• On July 30, Ukraine attempted to conduct a number of attacks targeting the Russian territory. One of the drones drone crashed into one of the towers of the Moscow City business centre. Several other drones were shot down in the Moscow region;
• On July 28, the Armed Forces of Ukraine attempted to attack objects in the Moscow region. The attempted attack was thwarted, no damage or casualties were reported;
• On July 24, Ukrainian drones tried to attack Moscow. Two non-residential buildings in Moscow were damaged, no one was injured;
• On July 17, 2023, Ukraine carried out a second terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge using surface drones (unmanned boats). Two adults, a family couple, were killed, their daughter was injured;
• On May 30, drones hit residential buildings in Moscow. Incidents were also reported in the Moscow region — in Krasnogorsk and in the Odintsovo urban district. According to the Ministry of Defense, a total of eight aircraft-type drones were involved in the attack on the capital.