As the world awaits Russia's response to Sunday's Ukrainian drone strike on its strategic bombers, a former aide to President Vladimir Putin contended that the attack calls for a nuclear response.
According to reports, Ukraine's Security Service confirmed that its drone attack — described as Moscow's Pearl Harbor — on four air bases and more than 40 planes deep within Russian territory caused $7 billion in damage.
"Such a large-scale attack on the components of the strategic nuclear potential on Russia's nuclear doctrine may be the basis for the use of nuclear weapons by Russia," Sergei Markov, the former Putin adviser and now political scientist, wrote on Telegram, according to Russian news outlet Moskovsky Komsomolets.
While Markov's remarks don't reflect the official Kremlin position, Keir Giles of the London-based think tank Chatham House told Newsweek on Monday that the world "can expect a great deal of sound and fury from Moscow."
Russian-aligned Telegram channels have reportedly compared the daring Ukrainian drone strike — dubbed Operation Spiderweb — to the Imperial Japanese Navy's Dec. 7, 1941, attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
Speculating on the Russian response in the aftermath of the attack, Washington Post columnist Max Boot said in a Sunday opinion piece that "the Russian high command must have been as shocked as the Americans were in 1941."
Newsweek reported that pro-Russian military bloggers and some officials blamed the success of Kyiv's operation on the failure of leadership in Moscow to protect far-flung military infrastructure.
Despite the Ukrainians' stunning tactical and public relations win, the drone strike on the eve of restarted peace talks in Istanbul risks escalating the long-running conflict between the two sides as world powers look to bring it to an end.
Giles said Russia will emphasize the risks of escalation in its messaging to Western nations and will create the impression that any further operational success by Ukraine could lead to a deployment of its nuclear arsenal and, potentially, war with NATO.
Cedomir Nestorovic, academic co-director at the ESSEC Institute for Geopolitics & Business, told Newsweek he doesn't believe Russia will escalate and that Moscow will likely downplay the significance of the Ukrainian attack.
"On the front line in Ukraine, the Russian army progresses little by little — this is their main objective," Nestorovic said. "The attack on their facilities in Russia is significant and humiliating, but it is not an invasion."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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