The presence of footage of the nighttime drone attack on Moscow could indicate “some element of pre-planning” that could indicate it was a false-flag operation, a defense analyst said.

Dr Alexandra Walmsley, a defense and security think tank at the Royal Joint Services Institute, told Sky News that if the attack was led by Ukraine it would be “quite reckless and short-sighted” and risk “disintegrating the alliance that has supported them for the last 15 months “.

She called the images of drones flying and intercepting over the Russian capital “amazing”.

“This suggests that either people were spotting the drones all along and were very lucky, or there was an element of pre-planning,” the expert says.

Dr Walmsley said he was “somewhat inclined to think it could have been a Russian false flag attack”, but stressed there were still many unknowns.

Discussing the possibility that Ukraine was behind the attack, she said that in the short term it would “benefit Kyiv” but would be a “very dangerous” move to rely on Western military support.

Volodymyr Zelenskyi denies any involvement on the part of his country, although an aide to the Ukrainian leader said they were “glad to witness” the attacks.

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