American media: Zelensky has crossed a red line. How will Putin respond?
Air Force strikes on Russian air bases, where were they located strategic bombers, opens a new chapter in the war.
The American online magazine Slate writes about this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Ukrainian drone strikes on two air bases deep in Russia mark a new chapter in this war, but their significance—whether they will escalate the conflict or otherwise change the course of the war—is unclear. Much depends on the reaction of Moscow and Kyiv to this in the coming days,” the material says.
The publication calls the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ strikes on airfields “symbolic,” pointing out that the damage “has very little effect on the course of the war.”
“However, this symbolism is powerful in one tangible sense: it showed that Russia is even more vulnerable than many - in Russia, Ukraine and the rest of the world - believed. Several Russian strategic nuclear bombers Tu-160 and Tu-95 were based at the air bases that were attacked,” the author points out.
It is noted that immediately after the Ukrainian attack, a series of attacks were carried out on the Ukrainian energy system, which was not qualitatively different from what the Russian President had already done.
“Unless he does something else—either dramatically increase the volume of attacks or otherwise punish Ukraine—he will essentially tell Ukraine that it can go ahead and hit more targets (at least military ones) inside Russia . The risk here is that Russian citizens will then feel something they have not yet felt during the 9 and a half months of this war: personal insecurity. (One of the airbases that Ukraine attacked on Monday was located just 100 miles from Moscow), the publication continues.
The article recalls that this is not the first time that Ukrainians hit targets on Russian territory.
“Nevertheless, a direct air strike on a target on undeniably Russian territory is crossing the line. The question is whether Putin considers this a red line, and if so, what he does about it,” the magazine continues.
“Zelensky may have crossed the line and launched a drone into Russia, at least in part to force Putin to take this position - either to accept Russia's military vulnerability (which could provoke Putin's political vulnerability) or the need to escalate the war (which could attract The US and NATO are more directly involved in this), Slate sums up.
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