November 16, 2024: The Russian government has tried to keep the reality of the war in Ukraine from the Russian people. Ukraine uses inexpensive drones to regularly remind Russians that there is a war going on and that Ukrainian forces can still reach deep inside Russia. In September Ukrainian drones attacked the Russian capital of Moscow. This attack came in at night, when it was more difficult to spot the drones flying low to avoid radar and visual identification. While many drones crashed or were shot down, there were so many that reached Moscow and attacked designated targets, as well as random ones, to cause many explosions that could be heard and fires that could be seen. This was an embarrassment for the government, who had denied numerous other drone attacks inside Russia.

Even Ukrainian drones shot down caused problems, like temporarily shutting down one of the four airports that serve Moscow and halting traffic on one of the major highways nearby. Crashing drones were often on fire and started fires wherever they fell. The firefighters had a busy night.

Over the last two years Russian missile and drone attacks on civilian targets have killed or wounded thousands of civilians and left even more homeless. Because millions of Ukrainians have fled the country, there are plenty of empty homes and apartments to house the homeless. Most Russians live outside the cities, many of them in remote rural areas. The non-city Russians comprise most of the soldiers sent to fight and die in Ukraine. That means there’s little symphony for Muscovites inconvenienced by the Ukrainian drones. While the drones attacked many rural targets, these were military or manufacturing operations that were largely idle and empty at night. The damage was very visible to a lot of Russians once the sun came up. The Ukrainians were reminding Russia and Russians that the cheap drones, manufactured in Ukraine, cause a lot of damage in Russia without any Ukrainians killed or injured. The drones are remote controlled or autonomous to deal with jamming. The drone operators in Ukraine are hard to find and usually working and living in bunkers.

The Ukrainian drone attacks are a form of psychological warfare against Russia and its people. Despite regular Russian pronouncements of victories in Ukraine, the drones keep coming and proving that Ukraine is not defeated and still very visibly fighting.