Another escalation in Vladimir
Putin's war on Ukraine
for the first time in the 400
plus days since the invasion began.
Civilian areas of Moscow
may have been targeted.
This plume of smoke
is the apparent
aftermath of Russia
shooting down a drone, one of eight
that their Ministry of Defense
says was stopped over the capital
That's why they brought
clear what remained
So far,
no deaths have been reported, though.
Drone debris has damaged
several buildings there.
Russia is blaming
Ukraine and its interior
ministry issued arrest warrants
for two senior Ukrainian commanders.
But an adviser for Ukraine's
president issued this denial
saying, quote,
We enjoy watching
and predicting an increase in attacks.
But of course,
we have nothing to do directly with it.
In the meantime,
Ukraine's capital
has been bombarded for days.
The 17th aerial assault by Russia
this month alone.
Let's take you now live to Kiev
and CNN's Fred Pleitgen.
And Fred,
you were learning that Vladimir Putin
has now responded to these
alleged Ukrainian drone attacks
there as well.
He certainly has.
And he also points
the finger of blame at Ukraine as well.
One of the other things
that was that was very interesting about
that alleged attack
that happened early in the morning
hours is the Russians are very quick
to point out
that these were actually substantial
unmanned aerial vehicles
that made their way
towards the Russian capital.
They say these are fixed wing aircraft
and not some sort of octo copter.
That's a lot smaller than that.
They said of the eight
that they took down,
three of them were taken down
using electronic measures.
But they also said that they actually
had to activate their air defenses
and use missiles
to shoot down the five others.
So certainly
this was a substantial attack,
as the Russians put it, on Moscow.
Absolutely unprecedented.
Since the Russians started their full
on invasion of Ukraine.
And you are absolutely right.
Vladimir Putin,
seemingly quite angry,
pointed the finger of blame
squarely at Kiev. Here's what he said.
Kiev chose the path of intimidation
of Russian citizens
and attacks on residential buildings.
It is a clear sign of terrorist activity.
The Moscow air defense system
worked satisfactorily.
However, there is still work
to be done to make it better
So, as you've already
noted to Boris, the Ukrainians
issuing a denial earlier
today, coming in the form of an adviser
to the presidential administration
here in Kiev, actually
pretty early on in the game,
where they did say
that they were happy
that these drone attack had happened.
But they also said
they didn't have any direct involvement
in it.
Nevertheless, as you can imagine,
the capital of Kiev
here, of course,
bracing for possible further attacks.
And, you know,
this comes after
what was really a very difficult night
here in the Ukrainian capital.
Having witnessed this overnight,
there were waves of attacks
by those
Iranian made shadow drones
that the Russians have been sending here
for the past couple of months.
And it really was over
the course of several hours
that Ukrainian air defenses
were firing in the air
and we were hearing them
firing in the air
and hearing explosions of those unmanned
aerial vehicles.
Being hit and falling to the ground.
There was one woman who was killed
in a large residential building.
We were on site there
just a couple of hours ago,
and there was substantial damage
to that building.
And again,
the Ukrainians, while saying
they had nothing to do
with those attacks on Moscow,
certainly bracing for
what could be even worse to come.
Boris, again, a 17th attack focused on
Kiev by Russia just this month.
Fred Pleitgen from Ukraine,
thank you so much.
And Jim,
we should note that
these drone attacks in Moscow,
some of them focused on
one of the most elite areas
of the capital city,
not far from Vladimir Putin's residences,
elite and also civilian.
And that raises some important questions.
We're joined now by retired Air Force
Colonel Cedric Leighton.
Good to have you on.
Let's look
at some of these attacks recently,
because one phenomenon
we're seeing
are multiple attacks
in recent days
and weeks
inside and,
well,
Russian controlled
areas of Ukraine down here,
but also inside Russia itself, Kursk,
Belgorod, close to the border,
but also in Moscow,
we have that
strike on the Kremlin recently,
which the U.S.
says low confidence
assessment was probably the Ukrainians.
Now we have these drones here
on the issue of civilian targets.
If that was indeed
the intentional target here,
what does that mean for Ukraine's war?
I mean, it certainly
Russia has
come under enormous criticism
for directly and repeatedly
targeting civilians in Ukraine.
Well, certainly, Jim,
if the Ukrainians are targeting
civilians deliberately,
that makes it a whole nother ballgame.
And that would be a very bad
move on Ukraine's part,
because right now what they're enjoying
is a lot of support from the West
because they are following basically
or at least have until this point
followed the rules of war,
the rules of armed conflict.
And that becomes really important
for Ukraine's war effort.
They cannot afford to target civilians
and they shouldn't do so
by mistake either. Let's have a look.
We know that the Ukrainians
have been using drones prior
in this conflict.
On military targets,
including some
pretty old one here
going back to the seventies, been,
you know,
a far cry
from what we're seeing
now, smaller, more mobile
kinds of things.
Could that lead
if this was Ukraine
and if the civilian areas were
the deliberate target?
Could that lead to disagreements with
the U.S.
and NATO's partners?
So one of the key things
that the Ukrainians have done
is they've used weapons
like this, like this
t u one 41
drone, which is based,
like you said, on Soviet
model that they've had
for many, many years.
This the idea here is that they are using
their own systems to target Russia
They are not using Western systems.
They are not using U.S. systems.
And they're doing that
deliberately because the US
has very specifically
told them
not to use Western system
Notably, they use a Ukrainian
manufactured missile
to strike the Russian Moscow
flagship of the Black Sea fleet
going back
to the early stages of the war.
But before we go, let's look back again
at all these sites that have taken hits
by Ukrainian forces in recent days.
This just in the last 24 hours here.
Given the anticipation
of a Ukrainian ground
offensive to take back
some of this Russian control
territory down here.
If you were planning this attack,
might you do this
to create some fear uncertainty
on the other side prior? Absolutely.
And the reason for that is, you know,
if your main target area
is all of this down here,
then what you want to do
is you want to make sure
that you're
keeping people
guessing that you could also
potentially attack in this area
and especially right here in in Belgorod,
because that area
is not only close to Ukraine,
but it has a
is a major staging area for the Russians.
And if they attack there,
that would be a legitimate target
for the Ukrainians to attack.
In addition
to all of these areas right here,
I remember
in the first day of the invasion
watching Russian tanks,
we had our Fred Pleitgen up there
on the border
action and drive across the border
into Ukraine for the war.
Senator Clinton, thanks so.