Putin caught in center of Ukrainian drone attack

Russian General Yuri Dashkin said in a TV interview that Putin’s helicopter, during his trip to the Kursk region, ended up right in the middle of a major Ukrainian drone attack.

The general noted that the intensity of the attack increased significantly while the Supreme Commander-in-Chief’s helicopter was flying over Kursk. His air defense unit had to both protect the president’s helicopter and engage in anti-aircraft combat at the same time.

As we can see, even Putin’s personal safety is now hard for the Russian military to guarantee. And that’s one of the key takeaways from this war — started by Putin himself back in 2014, and turned into a full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. It’s clear that at the time, Putin couldn’t imagine he’d end up in the crosshairs of a Ukrainian drone strike, risking his own life while visiting regions near the border.

"And this also points to the helplessness of Russia’s armed forces. It’s one thing to carry out missile strikes on another country and kill civilians. But when it comes to defending Russian territory itself, the problems start piling up."

The Kursk region, in particular, has turned into a real "Achilles heel" for the Russian regime. First, it became clear that Ukrainian forces could cross into Russian territory by dozens of kilometers without facing serious resistance. Then, they managed to hold ground in Kursk for months.

To regain control over much of that territory, Putin had to turn to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who sent military personnel into Russia. It turned out Moscow simply didn’t have enough resources to both wage war in Ukraine and defend its own borders.

In 10 years of this war, no one in Russia’s military or political leadership even thought about reinforcing the border with Ukraine. Now Putin’s talking about buffer zones. But until the Ukrainian flag showed up in Sudzha, he hadn’t said a word about it. That’s a mix of arrogance, overconfidence, and basic incompetence.

The same incompetence now shows up in how Russian state institutions function, especially those responsible for the security of the Commander-in-Chief.

"What a disgrace! The president’s helicopter was caught in a drone attack. Putin could’ve been killed — if Russian air defense had made one mistake, or if Ukrainian drone operators had a little more luck. And then, today, Russia would already have a different president."

And Putin would have been buried near the Mausoleum or at the Novodevichy Cemetery. And in classic Russian style, people would already be hearing how his presidency was full of flaws that the new leader now has to deal with.

Despite Putin's constant attempts to showcase the capabilities of his state, the war with Ukraine clearly shows that there are serious gaps in Russia’s state governance, gaps that can be exploited in the fight against this aggressive state.

And what’s most surprising is that even the Russians have started talking about these problems. A few years ago, we could hardly imagine getting information that Ukrainian drones may have targeted Putin’s helicopter. In other words, that Ukraine could have learned about the flight of a helicopter carrying a high-ranking Russian official over the Kursk region and then increased the number of drones to take him out.

This means, first, that the Russians can’t keep critical state information secret. Second, that Russian air defense was being forced to secure Putin’s safety on the fly. And third, no one’s even embarrassed to talk about it on air — even though this isn’t an example of military prowess, but more of military sloppiness and Chekist-style carelessness.

"Which raises the question: who was in charge of Putin’s security, and did the Russian president draw any conclusions from the fact that he could have simply been killed over Kursk?"

Of course, no one in Russia or anywhere else would actually miss Putin, but the Russian president clearly wants to live, and wants his own system to guarantee his safety. And, as we saw, that didn’t happen during his trip to the Kursk region.

Compared to the level of protection Russian officials had during the wars in the Caucasus, I can say with confidence — something is going very wrong with Russian statehood. Putin, with his habit of picking only loyalists, his distrust of real professionals, and the arrogance that’s become a trademark of his rule, is now creating problems that could cost him his life.

And in this context, the fact that the president of Russia could come under fire at any moment — especially considering he was recently meeting people at a long table just to avoid catching coronavirus — says a lot about the total collapse of the country’s real security system over the past three years.

Putin, like anyone else, has to understand that the nature of war is changing every day and every month. And if not tomorrow, then soon, the same drones that tried to “greet” him in Kursk might “visit” any of his residences. And it could turn out that Russia’s air defenses won’t be able to stop them, and those drones might just deliver a message to the president that he can hand over power, no constitutional amendments required.

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About the author. Vitaly Portnikov, journalist, National Shevchenko Prize laureate.

The editorial staff does not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.