Russia held an unprecedented training exercise to practice defending Moscow from air attacks Saturday, in the latest signal of Kremlin worries about strikes on the capital.
The exercise took place as the debate over Germany providing tanks to Ukraine escalated.
“In the Moscow region, a training session was held with the personnel of the anti-aircraft missile brigade of the Western Military District on repelling air attacks on important military industrial and administrative facilities,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The maneuvers involved 150 soldiers and an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system, the statement said.
“As they marched, soldiers repelled an attack by a mock enemy sabotage group on a military convoy,” the statement said. “Under the cover of a smoke screen, the air defense convoy was able to get out of the attack and continue fulfilling its tasks.”
The exercise took place in the “Moscow region,” but the ministry did not say exactly where.
The Kremlin refused to comment on whether it is expecting air strikes on the capital, according to the Moscow Times, an independent online news site that publishes in English and Russian.
Russia has been hit with several drone attacks attributed to Kyiv, including one that reportedly blew up two nuclear bombers, as well as some strikes on border regions, since it invaded Ukraine 11 months ago, but so far no major combat has taken place in Russia.
Meanwhile, Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president once considered a moderate but now fully behind Vladimir Putin’s war, boasted that the EU is remembering that it was Russia that “defeated Napoleon and Hitler.”
“Meaning, the Ukronazis and Western Europe are the direct heirs of those who fought against Russia,” Medvedev tweeted. “And the war against them is the new Patriotic one. The victory will be ours; like in 1812 and 1945.”
Medvedev, now the deputy chair of Putin’s Security Council, on Thursday had commented that “a nuclear power’s loss of a conventional war can lead to a nuclear one. Nuclear powers haven’t been defeated in major conflicts crucial for their destiny.”