Who sent two drones towards the Kremlin remains a mystery. But the British secret service sees no staging by Russia. And drone experts come up with another option.
British military intelligence apparently assumes that the Russian government had nothing to do with the drone attack on the Kremlin. In the latest briefing, the news service looks at the upcoming Victory Day on May 9.
There is nervousness in large parts of Russia, many commemorative events have been cancelled, the reception of Russian President Vladimir Putin after the parade is also canceled and then the crucial sentence follows: “The time of the drone attack on the Kremlin is a few days for Victory Day demonstrates Russia’s increasing vulnerability to such attacks.”
The “drone attack” has now been publicly mentioned by British intelligence for the first time. The British apparently assume an attack on Moscow’s government district – without linking Ukraine to the incident. Experts have not yet been able to assign the drones used to the Ukrainian army, but a launch from Ukraine is now being questioned.
Drone launch in Russia?
But who is responsible now? Ukraine and its allied partisan groups increased their capabilities throughout the war. Drone attacks in Russia – sometimes over long distances – are nothing new, defense and security expert Dan Sabbagh recently told the British Guardian.
For example, in February, a Ukrainian UJ-22 drone attempted to attack a gas installation southeast of Moscow, footage showed.
The type of drone is particularly important here as it is a light fixed wing drone. This would be very similar to one of the two drones that flew towards the Kremlin, writes Sabbagh. According to American experts, the downed aircraft could also have been launched in Russia. The reason: no one can imagine that the anti-aircraft system over Moscow could be so error-prone.
Experts: Drones must be manually piloted
Since 2015 at the latest, so-called “spoofing” has been used to protect the Kremlin, which also involves the control systems being tricked by drones using GPS jamming signals, says Dana Goward, president of the nonprofit foundation Resilient Navigation and Timing. Thus, the drones that reached the Kremlin could have flown without GPS and instead been piloted manually – suggesting a take-off in the immediate vicinity.
The founder and boss of the drone manufacturer BRINC, Blake Resnick, also assumes that there will be no GPS guidance or any communication with a ground station. The relatively small size of the devices and the low flight altitude could also have made this possible.
Ukraine has long-range drones
According to Dan Gettinger, drone expert at the Vertical Flight Society engineering society, there are only half a dozen larger military drone models that can fly a distance of more than 400 kilometers – from Ukraine to Moscow, for example.
Only a few countries produced drones of this size and with these capabilities, along with China, India and Taiwan, but also Ukraine. Such flying objects are therefore quite rare. Gettinger lists the range of drones that could carry out such an attack by launching from Russia.
It is still unclear whether the Ukrainian leadership around Volodymyr Zelenskyy has anything to do with the attack or whether a pro-Ukrainian group is spiraling out of control. Or both. That will probably remain a secret. On Thursday, the Ukrainian president once again announced: “We are not attacking Putin.”
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
