Valdai Residents Report No Signs of Claimed Ukrainian Drone Attack on Putin Residence - The Moscow Times
www.themoscowtimes.com
Residents of the town of Valdai in Russia’s Novgorod region said they neither heard nor saw signs of a large-scale drone attack overnight on Monday despite official claims that nearly 100 Ukrainian drones targeted President Vladimir Putin’s residence there.

Residents of the town of Valdai in Russia’s Novgorod region said they neither heard nor saw signs of a large-scale drone attack overnight on Monday despite official claims that nearly 100 Ukrainian drones targeted President Vladimir Putin’s residence there.

Fourteen residents told the independent outlet Mozhem Obyasnit that they received no text alerts warning of a drone threat and did not hear any buzzing sounds or explosions characteristic of a drone attack.

“There was no noise that night, no explosions, nothing,” one resident was quoted as saying. “If something like that had happened, the whole town would have been talking about it.”

…

Residents told Mozhem Obyasnit that they usually know when the Russian president visits his residence due to the heavy helicopter traffic accompanying his arrival.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that Ukraine’s armed forces had attempted a “massive” drone attack on Putin’s residence using 91 drones, all of which were allegedly destroyed by air defense systems.

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  • porcoesphino@mander.xyzEnglish
    1·
    3 hours ago

    Doesn’t targeting individuals for political purposes during a war break a bunch of international agreements or at least come close? The aim seems to be to push on this to break the peace treaty. I don’t think it’s working

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 hours ago

      Doesn’t targeting individuals for political purposes during a war break a bunch of international agreements or at least come close?

      Not really, especially in the case of Putin. He’s clearly the Russian military head, and it’s very easy to argue his death would improve Ukraine’s negotiating position, considering all the reports of his blocking agreements. For an attack on political leaders to be Kosher you need

      1. The political figure to be a military leader
      2. Their death leads to a clear improvement of the attacker’s position
      3. No excess civilian casualties in the attack

      It seems pretty clear to me that hitting Putin’s residence would meet all those criteria. That said, I still think this story is a load of bullshit aimed at derailing negotiations and giving Trump a flimsy reason to back off American Ukraine support.

    • Miles O'Brien@startrek.websiteEnglish
      1·
      3 hours ago

      Doesn’t targeting individuals for political purposes during a war break a bunch of international agreements or at least come close?

      I’m not sure. That said, I don’t consider “ending a war” to be a political purpose, but if the “rules” of war say you aren’t allowed to take out the leadership, then the rules are “only the poor have to die” and fuck that classist bullshit…

      And while your enemy being Warcrimes-R-Us doesn’t excuse your own war crimes, I think if your enemy is trying to genocide you, then you are within your rights to fight however you need to in order to not be genocided.