A big scale Ukrainian drone assault on the Russian Kursk area on Might 20 was reported by Russian sources 5 days later to have coincided with a go to by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Air defence division commander Yuri Dashkin reported relating to the incident that president whereas onboard his helicopter was “on the epicentre of repelling a large-scale assault by the enemy’s drones… The depth of the assault in the course of the flight of the plane with the Commander-in-Chief over the territory of the Kursk Area elevated considerably. Subsequently, we concurrently carried out an air defence battle and ensured the protection of the presidential helicopter’s flight within the air.” Dashkin’s assertion signifies that the president’s helicopter might have been in danger. Drones have on a number of events been used to convey down fight plane throughout flight, together with closely armoured Russian army helicopters, which will be weak resulting from their massive sizes and comparatively sluggish speeds in comparison with fastened wing plane.
An additional hazard throughout an assault by a number of drones stays the potential for pleasant hearth by native air defences, with incidents of Russian and Ukrainian shootdowns of their very own excessive worth plane whereas in search of to repel enemy air assaults having been reported often for the reason that outbreak of full scale hostilities between the 2 nations in February 2022. There stays a big chance that the presence of President Putin’s helicopter in the course of the Ukrainian drone assault considerably difficult air defence efforts, doubtlessly forcing defenders to depend on infrared guided missiles, anti-aircraft weapons, and digital warfare, to cut back the potential for pleasant hearth harming the commander in chief. Incidents the place heads of state have been positioned within the line of fireside having been few and much between prior to now half century, particularly for the leaders of main army powers akin to Russia. There stays a big chance that the Ukrainian drone strike might have been launched within the data of Putin’s basic location.
Regardless of the present hostile state of relations between Russia and the Western world, Western assessments have often cautioned towards the potential for President Putin’s compelled removing from energy, warning that alternate options inside the Russian management are prone to be much less beneficial to Western pursuits. Ukrainian strikes close to the Russian president’s location are however removed from unprecedented, with a failed drone assault having been launched on his residence in Moscow on Might 2, 2023. The truth that Putin was not within the air on the time doubtless meant the chance to his life was considerably decrease. There stays a big chance that such strikes have been supposed to intimidate the Russian chief and ship exhibits of pressure, and haven’t been carried out within the perception that there’s a vital intention of taking his life.
An additional chance stays that Russian state media and Commander Dashkin might have exaggerated the extent to which the president was in a central place in the course of the assault, as a part of an effort to affect public opinion and painting him as putting his life in danger in a area which was till lately essentially the most excessive depth centre of hostilities within the warfare. Criticisms of the Russian state and armed forces by Kursk residents for permitting Ukraine to mount a months lengthy invasion in August 2024, which resulted in vital casualties amongst Russian civilians, might present an incentive for the state to convey the photographs of a standard wrestle by the president within the space.
