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What the 1 August 2023 Moscow drone strikes showed
Summary
A look back at a day when drones reached central Moscow, flights were rerouted and tensions rose on Poland's border with Belarus.
What did it mean when drones reached a Moscow office complex for the second time in days? On 1 August 2023, Russia said it had destroyed three drones near the capital. One of them damaged the 21st floor of the IQ-quarter mixed-use complex, which hosts offices for the Ministry of Economic Development. Vnukovo International Airport temporarily closed for the second time in two days.
The disruption had already begun on 30 July 2023, when Russia said it had destroyed three Ukrainian drones over Moscow. One person was injured, and officials closed Vnukovo to traffic. The repeat on 1 August made the pattern hard to ignore.
Effects beyond Russia
The consequences extended past Russian borders. On 1 August 2023, Turkmenistan Airlines announced a temporary suspension of flights from Ashgabat to Moscow following the drone attacks. Its flights would instead go to Kazan, in Tatarstan. For a Central Asian carrier, the rerouting was a practical response to the closures.
The war's other front lines
The same period showed how differently the war was being felt on each side. On 31 July 2023, a Russian ballistic missile strike hit an apartment complex and a university building in Kryvyi Rih, in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. At least six civilians were killed and 75 others injured. Set beside a damaged office floor and delayed flights in Moscow, the contrast in scale of harm was stark.
Neighbours on alert
Tensions also rose on NATO's eastern edge. On 1 August 2023, Poland ordered more soldiers to its border with Belarus. The Polish Ministry of National Defence said two Belarusian helicopters carrying out training exercises had violated Polish airspace.
Politics and dissent
On 31 July 2023, the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on judges and officials involved in the prosecution of activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who had lost the appeal of his 25-year sentence for treason. A day earlier, on 30 July 2023, anti-war activists protested in Belgrade, Serbia, after two prominent anti-war and anti-Putin activists experienced problems trying to enter the country.
Taken together, the events of those days show a conflict reaching into airports, airline schedules and border postures across the region, while Ukrainian cities such as Kryvyi Rih continued to suffer missile strikes.
