A Ukrainian drone attack leaves at least 13 dead in the Russian region of Tatarstan

MoscowThe escalation in air attacks in the Ukraine war has once again resulted in civilian casualties. After last week's deadly bombings against Kyiv, this Monday Ukrainian drones attacked the Republic of Tatarstan, in the center of European Russia, killing at least 13 people and injuring 38 more. The unusual magnitude of the consequences of the attack, one of the deadliest on Russian territory since the start of the invasion, reveals the difficulties Vladimir Putin has in protecting the immense expanse of the country, beyond Moscow, a city that is almost impregnable.

According to images circulating on Ukrainian channels, the target of the bombing was the industrial complex of Nizhnekamsk, home to one of Europe's largest petrochemical plants and two refineries, accounting for 8% of the total oil distillation capacity in the initial phase of the process. Regional authorities have provided practically no details of the events or the circumstances of the deaths. The head of the Republic of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, limited himself to describing it as "another barbaric attack" against "civilian targets," it has been reported that a child was among the victims, and he has declared a day of mourning.

This is the third deadliest bombing on Russian territory since the beginning of the war. There were only more deaths in two attacks on the Belgorod region, in 2023 and 2024. Belgorod, however, borders the Ukrainian regions of Sumy and Kharkiv and was the scene of incursions by Kyiv's troops. In contrast, Tatarstan is located about 1,200 kilometers from the Ukrainian border and, therefore, it is much less common for drones to be able to cause so much damage there.

Much of Russia, unprotected

That this happens precisely now is not fortuitous. Ukraine has increased the waves of drones it sends daily to Russia and, in fact, during the early hours of Monday it launched more than 450. Faced with this scenario, the Kremlin has opted to exceptionally reinforce the anti-aircraft batteries of the Russian capital, one of the most frequent targets of Ukrainian unmanned vehicles. For this reason, the number of protection systems around the city has been increased: it currently has three rings with between 120 and 150 positions to repel drone attacks, a fourth ring is being deployed, and launchers are being installed on the roofs of skyscrapers.

The data provided by the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, show that, while Ukrainian aircraft are capable of threatening the capital, its defenses are very effective. In July, it is estimated that Kyiv's air forces sent more than 6,200 drones against the city. Of these, only one was able to penetrate all the protection rings, that is, 0.07%. As for the rest, just a hundred, approximately 6%, managed to reach the third defensive ring, located on the ring road that surrounds the city, about twenty kilometers from Red Square.

The collateral effect of this concentration of anti-aircraft batteries is the lack of protection for a large part of non-urban Russia and that the number of civilian casualties breaks all records. While Volodymyr Zelensky struggles to resist the waves of Russian missiles - out of 124 projectiles received in August, Ukrainian defenses have only been able to intercept one -, Putin cannot prevent drones from causing havoc within his country, despite being a less destructive type of weapon. Not going any further, on Sunday Belgorod suffered the deadliest attack in the last two years with six dead and about thirty injured.