Frontline report: Putin’s helicopter dodges friendly fire as Ukrainian drone swarm engulfs Moscow

Today, there are a lot of interesting updates from the Russian Federation. Here, in the aftermath of Russia’s largest missile strike of the war, Ukraine launched a thunderous response that sent shockwaves through the Russian homeland. As drones swarmed strategic targets and panic gripped the skies over Moscow, even Vladimir Putin found himself uncomfortably close to the line of fire.

Drone swarm sends Russian officials fleeing

Even while the 1,000 for 1,000 prisoner-of-war exchange process was taking place as agreed upon in Istanbul, the Russians launched a massive drone and missile strike campaign targeting Ukrainian civilians and critical infrastructure. The Russian strike consisted of almost 300 drones and 69 guided missiles, making it the largest strike launched in a single day, with the campaign lasting over 3 days, using nearly 1,000 drones in total.

The Ukrainians responded with a massive drone strike of their own, targeting critical Russian military and economic infrastructure used for the launch of drones and missiles, as well as their production. The intensity of the Ukrainian strike caused chaos to the point that a dozen Russian government planes, presumably with Russian government officials, flew from Moscow towards the eastern cities of Samara and Kazan, likely to evade being killed in precision strikes.

Putin's close call in the sky

At the time of the strike, Russian President Putin was in a helicopter, likely to avoid becoming a victim of the massive Ukrainian strikes on the ground. However, the commander of Russian air defense forces, Yuri Dashkin, confirmed that Putin was almost killed, as his helicopter ended up in the middle of the Russian effort to repulse Ukrainian drones. Such close calls and sheer incompetence are a common occurrence, as they previously targeted and shot down not just their own fighter jets, but several civilian airliners in the past as well.

Moscow descends into panic

Another video from Moscow shows a Russian civilian jet being caught amidst the ground fire of Russian air defenses, narrowly avoiding being hit after being mistaken for a very large Ukrainian drone. Such chaos, as well as Ukrainian strikes targeting military airfields in the area, forced the Russian government to close all airports in the Moscow area and other major cities in Russia during the day. For the past week, the Ukrainians launched intense strikes that forced the Russian airports to keep all their civilian flights grounded.

If Ukrainians consistently force Russian civilian aviation to stay grounded, it will prevent the travel of the civilian population, on top of denying the flow and export of goods across the country. This is why the Ukrainians were intensively conducting drone strikes to force the grounding of civilian aviation at major airports in the Moscow and Kaluga regions.

Strikes hit Russia's military-industrial nerve

The Ukrainian drone strikes properly struck key economic and military infrastructure, including a battery factory in the city of Yelets, as confirmed by satellite footage. The batteries produced at this plant are used for an application in the Russian military industry, including guided missiles, which could indirectly delay future Russian strikes. Furthermore, two chemical plants in the cities of Kineshma and Tula were struck by Ukrainian drones, with footage confirming the direct impact on the plants.

These chemical plants are directly tied to the Russian military industry, as they produce Nitric acid, ammonium nitrate, TNT, and RDX, which are used to produce missiles, artillery shells, and landmines. Strikes against these plants significantly disrupt Russian production of weapon systems and ammunition. These strikes are no coincidence, as causing any disruption alleviates the pressure off of frontline Ukrainian infantrymen, as Russia prepares to go all in on the attack this summer.

On top of that, the Ukrainians struck the Skaut tractor factory in Tula, after Ukrainian Military Intelligence discovered that the factory was covertly being used to produce parts for artillery systems and logistics trucks for the Russian army.

Strategic pressure ahead of summer offensive

Overall, the largest Russian missile strike against Ukraine did not pass without an even more devastating Ukrainian retribution, which resulted in successful strikes against critical Russian military industries and the cancellation of air traffic. Continuation of these strikes by the Ukrainians could lead to devastating blows to the Russian wartime industry, which could consequently weaken the Russian capability to conduct intense assaults during their planned summer offensive. In our daily frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.