The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force has once again criticized Russia’s military and political elite after the drone attack on Moscow that injured two people, damaged property and enraged some. The Kremlin had not better protected the capital.
In a profane statement released by his press service on Telegram on Tuesday, Yevgeny Prigozhin – whose mercenary fighters have played a key role in the war in Ukraine – blamed the drone strike on contactless officers living in Moscow’s affluent suburb of Rublevka.
“You, the Ministry of Defense, did nothing to launch an offensive,” Prigozhin said.
“How can you allow the drones to reach Moscow?”
“And what do ordinary people do when drones with explosives crash into their windows?”
Focusing his anger on the powerful residents of the posh Rublevka district in Moscow’s western suburbs, Prigozhin spoke of “scum” and “pigs” who sat quietly while Moscow was attacked.
Posting on Telegram after Tuesday’s attack, Alexander Chinshtein, a prominent member of Russia’s parliament from the ruling United Russia bloc, said three of the eight drones had been shot down over three Rublevka villages, one just a 10-minute drive away is from the residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Novo-Ogaryovo.
A patchwork quilt of elite condominiums in the forests west of Moscow, once home to some of the highest real estate prices in the world, Rublevka is home to much of Russia’s political, business and cultural elite. Former President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin reportedly own houses in Rublevka, along with many of Russia’s wealthiest businessmen.
Wagner boss Prigozhin, known for his blunt and often foul language, has repeatedly labeled Rublevka’s residents as a detached elite, under-engaged in the war in Ukraine, and the spearhead for Russia’s failures on the battlefield blamed.
Russian military blogger Igor Girkin – who a Dutch court has found guilty of murdering 298 people who died in the downing of flight MH17 over Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine in 2014 – on Tuesday also criticized residents of Rublevka who, as he said, “never…” thought about the country”.
He also chided Putin for continuing to describe the war in Ukraine as a “special military operation” despite drone strikes on the Russian capital, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). wrote On Wednesday.
After the drone strikes, Ramzan Kadyrov, the strong leader of the Russian province of Chechnya, called on the Kremlin to declare martial law across the country and to use all of its resources in Ukraine “to eliminate this terrorist gang”.
The ISW, a Washington, DC-based think tank, said Kadyrov had also warned European countries against supplying arms to Ukraine. knocks at their doors'”.
Some Kremlin observers noted that Putin’s calm response to the drone strike was in stark contrast to angry statements from Russian hawks and seems to reflect his belief that the Russian public will not be unsettled by the attack.
Putin said it was clear Moscow’s air defenses needed to be upgraded against what he called Ukrainian “terrorism”.
Legitimate Defense
Russia’s envoy to the United States said Wednesday that Washington encouraged such attacks by not opposing the drone attack on Moscow.
The White House said it does not support attacks inside Russia and is still collecting information about the incident.
“What are these attempts to hide behind the phrase that they are ‘collecting information’?” Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said in a statement published on the Telegram news channel.
“This is encouragement to Ukrainian terrorists,” he said.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, while not commenting specifically on the Moscow drone strikes, said on Tuesday that Ukraine has the right to strike targets on Russian territory in self-defense.
“Ukraine has a legitimate right to defend itself,” Cleverly said during a press conference with his Estonian counterpart Margus Tsahkna in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.
“It has of course the legitimate right to do so within its own borders, but it also has the right to use force beyond its borders to undermine Russia’s ability to project violence into Ukraine itself,” he said. “Legitimate military targets beyond its own borders are therefore part of Ukraine’s self-defense. And we should recognize that,” he added.
Ukrainian forces shelled a Russian town near the border on Wednesday for the third time in a week, damaging buildings and setting vehicles on fire, the region’s governor said on Wednesday.
At least one person was injured in the artillery attack on Shebekino, Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
A Ukrainian drone also sparked a fire at the Afipsky oil refinery in southern Russia on Wednesday, the governor of Russia’s Krasnodar Territory said.
The fire was soon extinguished and there were no injuries, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on the Telegram news app. The Afipsky refinery is not far from the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, near another refinery that has been attacked several times this month.