Published: June 19, 2026 1:30 pm
Author: RT
The strikes had negligible military impact and was intended to attract media attention, experts have told RT
Ukraine’s latest large-scale drone attack on Moscow was designed primarily for “dramatic effect” and was aimed at harming civilians, military analysts have told RT.
The strike, described by Russian media as the largest drone raid on the nation’s capital in two years, was intended to generate headlines rather than achieve meaningful military objectives, according to US-based military analyst and author Andrei Martyanov.
“This is done all for dramatic effect, for the PR action,” Martyanov told RT, adding that “the practical outcome of this is negligible.”
According to him, drones are not the main force shaping combined-arms operations, which continue to rely primarily on artillery and air power.
“Drones are very good, essentially, instrument, if you wish, for the terrorist regime, which is Nazi regime in Kiev,” he said. “That’s what they do. They kill civilians.”
READ MORE: Eight-year-old girl killed in Ukrainian drone raid on Moscow – governor
The assessment comes after Thursday’s raid on Moscow Region, which left 17 people, including two children, injured.
Martyanov argued that Moscow’s enormous size makes such attacks militarily insignificant while ensuring they attract outsized attention abroad.
“Many people still do not understand what Moscow is… it is comparable to a small country such as Luxembourg… It is purely for the shock value,” Martyanov said.
Watch RT’s full interview with Andrei Martyanov below.
Political commentator and former US Army officer Stanislav Krapivnik, who is based in Moscow Region, agrees that the consequences of such operations are borne primarily by civilians rather than military targets.
“I’ve seen videos sent by friends and friends of friends of the drones flying directly into apartment buildings. Not clipping them, not being shot down and falling on them, but actually targeting apartment buildings to kill civilians,” Krapivnik told RT.
READ MORE: The drone war is a distraction. Watch the front
Krapivnik argued that continued Western military support for Kiev makes Ukraine’s backers in the EU partly responsible for harm to civilians.
“At the end of the day, this has to be settled on the battlefield,” he said, adding that French and German leadership is “just as guilty for the murder of civilians” as the Ukrainian leadership.
Watch RT’s full interview with Stanislav Krapivnik below.
