International

Opinion//Drone strikes on Moscow bring Ukraine war to Russian capital. 'We understand there will be more in the future', say Russians

Russia's war in Ukraine has reached Moscow, says international security expert Iulian Chifu after the latest drone strikes on the Russian capital. In a statement to Radio Moldova, Iulian Chifu said that Russian citizens are currently not safe, as an aggressor state cannot wage war in another country believing that only the aggressed state will be destroyed.

"Fighting is taking place on Ukrainian territory and Russia believes that its territory, obviously the internationally recognised one, will never be touched. Such a presumption is aberrant from the theoretical point of view of military science. Concretely, when certain phenomena happen, whether you have responsibility or not that there is or is not traceability, it is natural to put in a framework of the bilateral war between Russia and Ukraine, and the Ukrainian side to emphasize the significance of these attacks, in what I was saying earlier, bringing the war to the door of every Russian citizen"

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhail Podoliak wrote on his Twitter account today that the war will soon pass into the territory of "perpetrators of war" and bring "more unidentified drones, collapse, more civil strife, more war".

While some citizens of the Russian Federation told the BBC they still expect such attacks, others say they will move their homes elsewhere.

"During the night I was woken up by a bang, there was an explosion". "I looked out of the window and saw the cars stop and that's when I realised what had happened." "I don't know what I'm going to do, but I think I'm going to move out of here". "As far as the construction of the building goes, the drone strike was like a mosquito bite to a human. Because the building is well constructed, those devices can only cause cosmetic damage, and the structure of a building will not be damaged." "We all understand that there will be more attacks in the future."

Drone attacks on regions of the Russian Federation have intensified recently. The most recent cases concern the capital of Moscow itself, where a skyscraper was hit twice, causing material damage.

Moscow has repeatedly accused Ukraine of carrying out drone strikes on its territory.

Although Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for some of the incidents, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski has said attacks on Russian territory are an "inevitable, natural and absolutely right process".

Russia has launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

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