the front lines of the war between Russia and Ukraine are expanding day by day the clashes which were concentrated only on Ukrainian territory in the early days of the war have now extended to ksk and even to the capital Moscow St Petersburg has also been affected by the war apart from ksk there are no Frontline battles in major Russian cities like Moscow and St Petersburg but drone and missile strikes are occasionally seen in such strategic areas St Petersburg reported its first drone attack in January 2024 in March 2024 City authorities announced strengthen security measures across
the city after a drone crashed into an apartment building and exploded there but tensions have recently risen again in the city recently Russian President Vladimir Putin's Hometown witnessed an attack by Ukrainian drones the Drone strike targeted the city's most important port facility before we get into the impact of this critical attack on St Petersburg and it has shaped the war please don't forget to subscribe to our Channel turn on notifications and like us to stay up to date with our content let's get started an oil refinery in St Petersburg Russia has been shaken by attacks
by drones suspected to be Ukrainian in a suspicious attack the drones targeted UGA the country's largest Maritime trade Port second only to Novar rois the port was an important center of Russian Maritime Logistics therefore local residents and the authorities in the city were maximally concerned after the attack in usluga most of the drones were allegedly intercepted over the novat trans terminal inside the port local authorities said four drones were shot down but did not report any casualties however the latest images from the site of the attack showed that the port was severely damaged according to
Russian officials this Ukrainian drone attack is not the first reported attack on the facility since the invasion in 2022 Ukrainian forces have increasingly targeted Russian infrastructure to disrupt Logistics and military supply chains on January 21st explosions occurred near us luga's oil terminal which was later confirmed to be part of a special operation by the Ukrainian Security Service the Ukrainian Armed Forces often put such locations on the list of primary targets the usluga SE trade Port was put into operation in December 2001 with the construction of a coal terminal in the early 2020s it became Russia's
second largest port and played an important role in the export of fuel supplies including those used in military operations it is therefore not unexpected that this port was attacked by the ukrainians moreover us luga's strategic location on the Baltic Sea Coast allows Russia to maintain an important Naval presence in the region the port also facilitates the transportation of goods needed for military needs since the ukrainians are aware of all the Strategic features of this port usuga could be the target of attacks in the future as well as Russia has lost access to European ports due
to sanctions UGA has emerged as a vital trans shipment point for goods Bound for Asia especially China and India this exchange helps Russia maintain to International markets experts believe that the US luga Port is not only an important part of Russia's economic strategy but also a tool for Russia's economic and Military survival in an isolationist environment offering all these opportunities the port is of great importance for Russia in the near term there may be disruptions in services at the Port of us luga while all necessary repairs are carried out and the authorities in investigate the
incident in the coming days there may be retaliatory Russian attacks on Ukrainian Port facilities in response to what happened in usluga in addition to usluga authorities in other Russian regions such as briansk smolin belgrad and pav also reported drone activity on the night of January 34 the Russian defense Ministry claimed that the military shot down 16 drones over Leningrad briansk smolin belgrad and Poff regions overnight on the morning of January 4th flights were temporarily suspended twice at St Petersburg Pavo Airport arrivals and departures at Pavo International Airport located more than 800 kilm from Russia's border
with Ukraine were suspended from 7:45 to 10:15 Russian time rosavia press spokesman arom kinako said the restrictions were imposed for security purposes the halt in air traffic came as Russian air defenses destroyed a record four drones over the Leningrad region according to Governor Alexander Drazen aircraft Crews air traffic controllers and airport services are taking all necessary measures to ensure flight safety on the morning of January 4th St Petersburg airport introduced the carpet plan for the second time in 24 hours as part of this plan Rosa vatsia Press spokesman Aram kinako said that during the flight
suspension 20 flights to pcoo were diverted to Alternative airports six planes landed at the holding area near Lake logga St Petersburg airport is alleged to have halted restrictions for more than 2 hours at First Flight disruptions were unlikely until the end of January 4th as Airlines tried to clear the backlog of flights so far there has been no clear statement from the authorities on the latest situation at the airport report such disruptions worries and panic in and around the city of St Petersburg following the drone strikes actually provide us with important insights into Russia's defenses
the Russians were incapable of protecting even Putin's Hometown in fact it is a well-known fact that there are s300 air defense systems around St Petersburg a local resident once even published footage of anti-aircraft missile systems blocking a road as they tried to maneuver these complexes have been built everywhere in the region you may recall that a drone flew over one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's properties in valdi and then struck the St Petersburg oil terminal Russia's largest oil products trans shipment facility in the Baltic region this was followed by an increase in the number of
s300 air defense systems in St Petersburg but we understand that the s3000s are inadequate for the defense of St Peters pburg in order to better understand this inadequacy we will have to look in more detail at these systems of which there are many in St Petersburg the s300 is a family of Soviet medium range anti-aircraft missile systems serial production began in 1975 and testing was completed in 1978 the first s300 regiment was deployed on combat Duty in 1979 by the late 197 s this air defense system employed more than 20 types of missiles differing in
missiles Radars electronic warfare capabilities and range Russia currently uses three types of missiles 5 v55 K 5 v55 R and 48 H6 equipped with high explosive Warheads weighing up to 144 kg the s300 complex consists of a launch vehicle along range surveillance radar command vehicles and an attack radar that allows positioning of system elements at a distance of up to 40 km with an effective range of up to 100 km at altitudes between 25 M and 27 km and designed to combat strategic tactical aircraft cruise missiles operational tactical missiles and ballistic missiles the s300 is
said to be resistant to electronic countermeasures the long range radar can track objects up to 300 km away the system is all weather and can adapt to different climatic zones it is noteworthy that the s300 anti-aircraft missile systems when grouped as air defense equipment effectively protect tens of thousands of square kilometers from Airborne threats the s300 is widely recognized as one of the most powerful anti-aircraft missile systems used by Russian forces given all these features we can imagine that the s300 is a very powerful air defense system but this is only really a fantasy the
fact that Putin's Hometown has been repeatedly hit by air strikes since the beginning of the war including the recent drone strike in St Petersburg shows that the s-300s are not enough for Russian defense on the other hand Russia's lack of air defense poses critical problems not only for St Petersburg but also for the capital Moscow Moscow Russia's capital has been arguably one of kiev's most strategic targets since the beginning of the Ukrainian occupation with a population of around 18 million people including the suburbs it was considered highly unlikely that the ukrainians could mount an effective
attack on Moscow Vladimir Putin in particular was very confident about the defense of the capital in fact the ukrainians have been practicing drone strikes on the Russian Capital Moscow since the beginning of the war one of the Ukrainian military's most recent attempts was the largest attack on Moscow to date in November 34 drones penetrated the capital moscow's defenses aircraft type drones were used in the attack flights were delayed at three airports in the capital the Russian Federal Air transport agency reported that domodedovo Shero and zukovsky airports diverted at least 36 flights but then resumed their
operations there has been an incredible sense of panic among the people of Moscow videos posted on social media of the attack in the city showed numerous cases of fires as for how the ukrainians penetrated moscow's air defenses it is first necessary to look at the protective systems in the capital Moscow and the surrounding Central District have always been the most heavily defended areas in Russia currently the protection of the capital and the central district is carried out by the first air and missile defense Army the capitals air missile defense system has a complex structure consisting
of two layers the first is the A1 135m strategic missile defense system the second is the s5m which includes the Bol 1 and Universal 1 automated Control Systems the S400 and s300 pm2 complexes and the pancer anti-aircraft units these are all supported by various radar stations that provide detection and guidance of defensive air missiles this wide array of systems is primarily against air strikes cruise missiles and intercontinental ballistic missile Warheads but as we saw in the case of November the ukrainians were able to bypass all these powerful double layered air defense systems in Moscow and
carry out the Drone attack experts suspect that the drones used in Moscow were the a22 Flying Fox drone which was involved in the recent attack on a Russian base in the Caspian Sea port of caspis in dagistan this drone if you remember traveled a thousand miles in the attack in dagistan the same drone may have penetrated moscow's air defenses this time in fact regardless of the type of drone another reason for the success of this attack was that the defense Doctrine in the capital downplayed air threats indeed protection from drones has never been the task
of the air missile defense systems in service with the first Army neither the 2021 National Security strategy nor the 2014 military doctrine of the Russian Federation Define drones as a threat to National Security the April 2nd 2019 concept for the development of the Aerospace defense of the Russian Federation until 2030 also pays no attention to the Fight Against drones when the Russian defense Ministry released a report on the development of the Russian Aerospace forces at the beginning of the war it stated that the modernization of the Moscow missile defense system would be completed in 2023
but the Drone threat was not mentioned the fact that Ukrainian drones have the capability and intent to attack important Targets on Russian territory was evident even in the fall of last year in November 2022 Russian Security Council secretary Nikolai patev called for an increase in air defense forces in the central federal district especially to protect important facilities judging by the attacks on Russian airports in December 2022 and the recent drone attack in Moscow the realization of this vulnerability came too late Lieutenant General Atek Bev former deputy commanderin-chief of the Russian Air Force for the Commonwealth
of independent states air defense system proposed the establishment of 24 to7 air defense posts in key strategic locations including the Kremlin the defense Ministry and the headquarters of the Federal Security Service however this proposal was not accepted according to Yuri kov a military expert and director of The Air Defense Forces Museum this is probably due to the fact that after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine most of the Russian air defense systems were moved close to the Ukrainian border the installation of air defenses on the roofs of some Moscow buildings in January also showed that the
Russian military is facing a serious shortage of short-range systems on the other hand the panser air defense systems which are also located in the Capal Moscow have largely failed to detect low speed and small targets including military drones at the same time such air defense systems regularly detected false Targets in including large birds flying nearby the Russian military system has developed plans to deploy a larger number of t m2s on military bases located in and near Moscow but tm2 was not an absolute defense either it detected uavs with at least 70% probability at a distance
of 9915 km I.E 5.59 Mi at the same time the lowest altitude that could be detected by the system was 30 60 meters there is a lot of interference in urban areas and the probability of detecting targeting and extracting such a Target is even lower in Moscow toram 2's success rate was even lower also important was the fact that Russian air defense systems had problems defeating drones in the dark the timing of drone strikes against Moscow and other Russian cities such as Brians ksk belgrad voron and other Russian cities shows that the activity usually occurs
at midnight another challenge is that Russian air defense systems can intercept drone strikes at high costs this is also true for the air defense systems in Moscow military theorists in the Russian defense Ministry have repeatedly noted the low efficiency and unreasonably High Cost of defeating drones by conventional means defense is further Complicated by the fact that uavs are usually made of plastic and powered by a a small metal engine and therefore have a low radar signature drones fly at low speeds and low altitudes making them difficult to shoot down from a distance they are also
easy to maneuver which allows drones to evade Radars and air defense systems this suggests that the drones attacking Russia could have been launched from almost anywhere the whole world already knows how well the ukrainians have mastered this even though Russia could not even protect its capital Ukraine has been trying to take precautions against drone attacks since the beginning of the war some of these measures were quite remarkable the appearance of police anti-drone teams especially in St Petersburg show the authorities concerns and the relatively low Tech countermeasures on offer another measure was a complete ban Moscow
authorities completely banned drone flights in the early stages of the war there was talk that more technological systems will be put in place to protect the capital in the future laser and microwave weapons are being developed in Russia but their introduction into service is still a long way off Russia's inability to properly protect even the capital Moscow and the fact that modern air defense systems have not yet been deployed in the city is causing great demoralization among its residents there is a threat to life on the streets of St Petersburg or Moscow but there seem
seems to be little that the Russian people can do about it over the last 10 years but especially since February 2022 surveillance has played a key role in Putin's campaign of intensified political repression this repression prevents people from speaking openly and frankly about their thoughts and feelings about politics and life in Russia many people oppose the occupation of Ukraine and the repressive policy inside Russia and want to communicate this but open challenges to the positions of the Putin regime can get Ordinary People into serious trouble this is why Russian citizens who think that the attacks
in St Petersburg and Moscow are Putin's fault cannot do anything but keep quiet but if the war spreads completely to St Petersburg or Moscow the heart of Russia Putin will have a bitter taste of what this silence really means as much as Russian citizens hope that the situation will not escalate to such a tragic level it is likely that Putin's decisions will determine the future of all Russian cities including St Petersburg and Moscow thank you for choosing us
