Witness: Russians were afraid of children – as Ukraine sent a message to Moscow and Washington that caused drone strike damage
By Moscow correspondent Iver Bennett
After arriving in Vidnoy, a suburb 15 miles south of the Kremlin and Moscow centre, the first thing I noticed was a pile of ground debris, broken glass, a chunk of what looked like loft insulation, and a pile of crumpled metal railings.
The next thing was a windshield that was all cracked and crushed, and people were patching it with bubble wrap, bin liners and tape.
And finally, I saw the cause of all that. At the top of the apartment block where I stood below was a huge black burnt mark spread out to the outside of the building.
In the center there were four empty window frames and a large hole in the masonry of the building.
The crushed windshield was the result of falling debris that the volunteers had still cleaned up when we arrived.
“I picked up the child and ran.”
The building was attacked by one of the Ukrainian drones that reached the outskirts of Moscow early on Tuesday.
For the next few hours, a shady crowd of locals continued to gather in the car park below, staring at the damages of fear, relief and confusion.
“I’m still in shock,” said Avsara, a young mother who lives on the hit block.
“I was very scared. The loud noise was so I woke up at 5am. I picked up the kids and ran away.”
This was just one of nearly 100 drones that fired down the Moscow region. The Kremlin said it was proof that Moscow’s air defense system “worked well.” But not everyone we spoke to on Vidnoye shared that optimism.
“The very fact that it was overlooked is offensive,” he said, suggesting that the scale of the overall attack in Ukraine, in which Russia shot down a total of 337 drones, should have been detected long before it was released, “the very fact that it was overlooked is offensive.”
“I understand that it’s impossible to react to all the small attacks and so on, but I’m sorry, this is a 300 drone,” he said.
Hopeful progress towards peace negotiations – as Ukraine sends a message
Moscow has cast its attacks as terrorist, accusing Ukraine of deliberately targeting civilians. Kyiv denies the charges, stating that it is only intended to hit war-related infrastructure and that the attacks respond to the Russian bombing of Ukraine.
“We hope that (peace negotiations) will lead to the final outcome until the end of such wild actions,” another resident, Olga, told us.
Certainly, it feels like Ukraine is trying to send a message with this attack.
A message not only for Russia, but for the United States.
That’s because crunches between Saudi Ukrainians and American officials came hours before discussion, following weeks of twists for Kiev.
With Donald Trump’s push for a peace deal, his administration is trying to force Ukraine to make concessions, and the US president recently said Russia “holds all the cards.”
This felt like Ukraine was telling the US that they were wrong. Russia does not hold all the cards and that they still could cause problems with Moscow, and that if they are forced to make concessions, then Russia should be.
