The War Reaches Home: How Internal Strikes Are Shifting Russia’s War Strategy

Source: Author’s Facebook page

Since childhood, I’ve known one simple rule: if someone comes to hurt you, don’t beg, don’t bargain, and don’t seek compromise — just fight back.

If you believe you can win — fight. Even if you can’t stand — fight. Because he will interpret anything less than a retaliatory strike as weakness. On the other hand, when he realizes that even a victory for him is just another stage before a new fight — because you refuse to give up — he will lose interest. And then, he will seek peace.

This is exactly what our UAV pilots do. They understand that the only argument the enemy will acknowledge after striking us is to hit their territory with drones.

And our pilots are delivering.

Yesterday, a refinery in Syzran, Russia, was attacked. A fire has been reported. Additionally, yesterday, a plant in the Rostov region was also targeted. Notably, the drones used in the attack on the plant resemble… Shaheds. We built them.

Today, our UAVs simultaneously struck Cheboksary, Engels, and Saratov. A video circulating on social media shows a massive fire at a Cheboksary facility. Later, local TV channels reported that the police had blocked access to the VNIIR-Progress JSC facility, which manufactures electronic warfare protection for Russian UAVs.

In the Voronezh region, NASA’s monitoring system detected a fire at the Russian military airfield Borysoglibsk. The governor of Voronezh admitted that the region had been hit by a massive raid of Ukrainian UAVs.

Around ten explosions occurred in Engels — precisely where the Russian military airfield is located.

And finally — the icing on the cake. A massive drone attack struck the Leningrad and Moscow regions, forcing airports in Moscow and St. Petersburg to cancel flights en masse. Around one hundred flights were cancelled, and several hundred more were delayed. Many passengers have been stuck at airports for up to nine hours.

There is particular chaos at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport: over 170 flights are delayed, nearly 50 cancelled. Terminal buildings are overcrowded. Passengers arriving on planes are not being allowed to disembark — some have been sitting in aircraft cabins for up to four hours.

They brought the war to us — now they have a chance to taste it themselves.

And this isn’t even the full picture. It doesn’t include the thousands of UAV operators on various front lines — in combat brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, units of the Ministry of Defence, and the Ukrainian Special Forces. These men and women conduct non-stop reconnaissance, adjust artillery fire, identify targets for missiles, drop “Baba Yaga” drones, and strike the enemy with FPV drones. Again and again. Without pause.

What does it look like up close? You can read about it in my novel Ptashnyky — a story about drone pilots, the volunteers who fundraise for UAVs, and the engineers who build them. A novel about people working with cutting-edge technology who remain deeply human, with their tragedies and triumphs.

As a reminder, on the night of July 5, the Ukrainian Defense Forces struck an important Russian military-industrial complex in the city of Cheboksary, Chuvash Republic. It is known that the Russian plant “VNIIR-Progress” was hit.

In addition, the Ukrainian Defense Forces struck the Borisoglebsk military airfield in the Voronezh region of the Russian Federation, where Su-34, Su-35S, and Su-30SM aircraft are based. Earlier, Russia reported an attack by Ukrainian drones, and NASA satellites recorded a fire on the territory of the airfield. Explosions were also heard near the military airfield in the city of Engels.

Meanwhile, in Russia, people are complaining about flight delays lasting several hours due to restrictions on the operation of major airports, allegedly due to the threat of attack drones. More than 20 flights were delayed at Sheremetyevo, and flights to St. Petersburg were canceled. Passengers waited in the terminals for more than 10 hours. At Pulkovo, the situation is even worse: about 50 flights were delayed, and more than 20 were canceled.

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