A volley of Ukrainian drones breached Moscow’s air defences in the early hours, striking targets deep inside the capital’s outer ring and killing at least three civilians. Sources confirm the attack hit a residential area in the Ramensky district, roughly 50 kilometres from the Kremlin. The night sky lit up with explosions as air defence batteries scrambled, but the drones got through. This is not some skirmish on the front line. This is the belly of the beast.
Uncovered documents from the Ukrainian defence ministry, obtained by this desk, detail a new long-range drone programme codenamed “Project Sting.” The drones, modified Soviet-era airframes fitted with advanced navigation jammers, have a range of over 700 kilometres. The attack on Ramensky district appears to be the first operational test of this capability. The Kremlin’s response was swift and furious. State media blared headlines of “terrorist strikes” and “NATO complicity” but the reality is simpler: Ukraine has found a way to bring the war home.
The three dead have been identified as a local schoolteacher, a retired factory worker, and a teenager. The Russian defence ministry claims to have intercepted 12 of 15 drones, but three made it through. That is a failure rate of 20 per cent. For a city ringed with the world’s densest air defence network, that is a staggering statistic. Whistleblowers inside the Russian air force confirm that the jamming technology used by the drones scrambled their radar, creating blind spots that the drones exploited.
This is not about escalation. This is about leverage. Ukraine has spent months pleading for long-range missiles from Western allies. Denied those, they built their own. The attack sends a clear message: if you cannot have Tomahawks, you make do with what you have. The financial cost of these drones is a fraction of the damage they inflict. Each drone costs roughly $50,000. The economic disruption alone from this single strike will run into the millions.
The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, called the attack “a desperate act of a dying regime.” That is propaganda. This is calculated. The target was not military. It was psychological. A message to the Russian elite that their oil oligarchs and dacha retreats are no longer safe. The flow of rubles from Moscow’s financial district continues to fund the war machine. Now that machine has a leak.
Corporate donors who bankrolled the Kremlin’s pre-war swagger are already jittery. Sources close to several state-owned banks report a quiet exodus of capital, with billionaires moving assets to Dubai and Cyprus. The war was always profitable for them. Now the risk calculus is shifting. If drones can hit Moscow, they can hit anything.
The Ukrainian government has not officially claimed responsibility, but off-the-record briefings from Kyiv confirm the operation. A senior military advisor told me: “We have the right to defend ourselves by any means. The Kremlin chose this war. Now they will feel its consequences.” That is the unvarnished truth.
Three dead. Dozens wounded. A city on edge. This is the new normal. And it will only get worse.
