Belarus leader says he is stopping Wagner fighters entering and 'smashing up' Poland; first NATO member shuts embassy in Russia | War latest
How are Ukrainian drones able to fly 500 miles to Moscow undetected?Volodymyr Zelenskyy had warned that he intends to take the war to Russia, and although Ukraine does not comment on such attacks, there has been a marked increase in the number of drone attacks on the Russian capital Moscow.
Moscow is 500 miles from the Ukrainian border, and so any Ukrainian attack drone would need to have significant range, and minimise the risk of detection. Regardless, drones remain relatively vulnerable, so for high-value targets a different attack mechanism is required. But Ukrainian attacks on Moscow are primarily designed to have a psychological effect, and even if the drone does not hit its intended target, it often still has the desired strategic effect.
Latvia and Lithuania also joined Poland in threatening to shut their borders with Belarus over the Wagner threat.Iceland has become the first member of NATO to formally suspend embassy operations inside Russia. He wrote:"Moscow is rapidly getting used to a full-fledged war, which, in turn, will soon finally move to the territory of the 'authors of the war' to collect all their debts... "More unidentified drones, more collapse, more civil conflicts, more war..."
The announcement also comes days after the Kremlin hosted a summit with African nations in St Petersburg, where President Putin announced he would send 50,000 tonnes of free Russian grain to six African countries.Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the Algerian president, also visited Moscow on a state visit in June, where he signed a declaration on"deep strategic partnership" with Russia.
The head of the Russian army's general staff, Valery Gerasimov, has visited frontline troops in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region; Ukrainian forces recaptured a village west of the region in June, marking their second gain on the frontline since it launched its counteroffensive. Ukraine's army may have often depended on Western funding and supplies to fight off Russia's invasion - but it is now turning to crowdfunding as well.