MOSCOW:
Russia is urgently ramping up its air defences in Moscow amid evident fears of a full-scale attack on the capital city from Ukraine, with an anti-air system also being installed near President Vladimir Putin’s official residence outside the capital, local media reported.
A Pantsir-S1 defence system has appeared on the roof of the Russian defence ministry’s National Defence Management Centre (NTsUO) on Frunzenskaya Embankment, the command centre of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, it was reported.
A video showed the same powerful system being lifted onto a rooftop in Teterinsky Lane, Taganka district, one-and-a-half miles from the Kremlin.
And in another clip, the installation of another Pantsir-S1 complex emerged close to the Russian president’s country retreat in Novo-Ogarevo, evidently to protect him from Ukrainian drones or missiles, as reported.
Pro-Russian Telegram channel Military Informant acknowledged this was an admission that Moscow, with a 12 million population, is now vulnerable, with the deployment underscoring that the “the military are afraid of a possible strike”.
On Wednesday, photographs appeared of the modern S-400 missile defence system in two locations, one in fields belonging to the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy in the northwest of the city, another Losiny island in a national park to the northeast where trees were felled for the installation.
There are reports of such deployments at half a dozen sites in Moscow, as Putin daily increases his defences in the capital city, according to reports.
One deployment is said to be at Zarechye village, close to his country retreat Novo-Ogarevo, said Sirena Telegram channel.
A video purportedly showed the deployment.
There are rumours that Putin and his young family with former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva are now usually based in one of several secret bunker complexes, it was reported.
The children have not been introduced to the Russian people, and secretive Putin has never confirmed his relationship with Kabaeva. IANS