Paranoid Putin ramps things up after Ukraine's massive strikes cause chaos in Russia

Vladimir Putin is reportedly feeling the pressure from the Ukrainian side, having been forced to openly deploy electronic warfare units at the Kremlin as the latest sustained Ukrainian attacks pose a major threat.

Moscow has endured repeated closures of its main airports in the last two days causing much frustration to Russian civilians. The most recent attack has been labelled the “most massive…air raid on Russia since the beginning of the Second World War”, as Ukraine seeks to punish Putin for refusing a ceasefire.

From Tuesday until this Friday morning (23 May), more than 750 drones were “intercepted” by the Russians, but not all of them.

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Overnight, a major plant responsible for making chemical power sources for Russian drones, nuclear-capable Bulava missiles, as well as Iskanders and hypersonic Kinzhals, was hit in a Ukrainian strike at Yelets, Lipetsk region, 220 miles southeast of the Kremlin.

The attack left eight people wounded, as half a dozen explosions thundered over the key facility - described as one of Russia’s most important military plants - with unconfirmed reports of a hazardous leak.

“There were a lot of drones, flying literally in columns, one after another,” reported the Exilenova+ Telegram channel.

Another attack targeted Putin’s Severny airfield in Ivanovo - the base for his strategic AWACS aircraft - with kamikaze drones. And in Lgov, Kursk region, a reported half dozen US-supplied HIMARS missiles struck a Russian command post and military facility with 16 casualties.

Near Moscow, the military Patriot Park was hit in another drone strike, caught on video.

More footage showed a drone downed near Domodedovo - a major Moscow airport - part of a series of attacks that wrought havoc with the capital’s air transport.

The latest hard-hitting strikes came as Putin appears to be rejecting peace proposals from Ukraine, the US and European states, including Britain. The dictator confirmed his intention to take over a new swathe of northern Ukraine, ordering his troops to create a “buffer zone” inside the Sumy region.

He told security officials: “A decision has been made to create the necessary security zone along the border [inside Ukrainian territory].

“Our armed forces are currently solving this problem. The enemy's firing points are being actively suppressed, the work is going on.”

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said Putin's words were further proof that Russia is “an obstacle to peace efforts”.

Earlier this week, President Trump had a 2-hour phone call with the Russian leader, which he said “went very well.”

“Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will begin immediately” claimed Trump, while adding, “The Vatican, as represented by the Pope, has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations.”

However, reports today said that Putin is not interested in holding peace talks at the Vatican, in his latest rejection of outside attempts to halt the war.

Russia’s FAB aerial bombs hit multi-storey buildings in Stepnogorsk, Zaporizhzhia region, with claims that Ukrainian positions were located inside the structures.

Additionally, a savage drone strike hit civilians in the Poltava region, damaging multiple houses and cutting out power for thousands of civilians. Yet Putin was forced to secure his own territory in the Kremlin, where he admits he has been holed up for much of the war in an official apartment.

A video is reported to show a drone-jamming Tigr-M military vehicle amid daily swarms of Ukrainian unmanned kamikaze planes targeting key Russian locations this week, amid fears of strikes on the seat of power in Moscow.

In response to Ukraine’s latest retaliation, the Russian military channel Fighterbomber has now warned of the country’s change of approach, saying it could cause maximum disruption to air travel.

“The Ukrainian army is trying an interesting tactic,” it stated.

“At irregular intervals and from different directions, they launch long-range drones towards Moscow—both day and night. As a result, air traffic is partially or completely paralysed, and, in line with new directives, mobile internet is shut down.

“Obviously, this tactic requires a lot of drones. Many are shot down along the entire route from the border.

“But it is also clear that even the few that make it through are enough to halt operations at Moscow’s airports, overload airports in nearby cities - which means partially blocking them too, as they receive the planes that were supposed to land in Moscow - and trigger internet black-outs….

“How critical this is for the normal functioning of the capital remains unclear, but if the Ukrainian army commits all its drones to this mission, something will need to be done,” the channel concluded.