The New York Times: Russia will respond forcefully to attacks on Ukrainian military airports

The New York Times reported that Moscow will respond forcefully to Ukraine, which recently launched attacks on Russian military airports.

In its Monday issue, the New York Times cited statements from unidentified US government officials in its commentary on the attacks carried out by the Ukrainian Security Service on military airports in Russia.

Officials explained that the operation not only damaged Russia’s strategic capabilities, but also demonstrated that Ukraine is capable of destroying military aircraft worth more than $100 million each using a $600 drone.

US officials stressed that they expect a strong response from Moscow, and that these attacks won’t prompt Russia to scale back its operations in Ukraine.

They noted that the United States hasn’t yet received intelligence regarding the type of potential counterattack Russia might launch against Ukraine.

They pointed to the possibility of launching drone attacks against civilians, targeting energy networks, and launching medium-range ballistic missiles.

The same officials explained that Ukraine didn’t inform the United States before the operation because it “knew Washington would oppose it”.

On Sunday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that Ukraine had launched drone attacks on military air bases in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions of Russia, and that some aircraft had caught fire.

Ukrainian attacks have reached deep into the northwestern, southwestern, and eastern regions of Russia.

Ukrainian social media accounts reported that the Ukrainian military carried out a large-scale operation using drones against Russia.

It indicated that more than 40 Russian aircraft were damaged as a result of the attack, including A-50 early warning aircraft, Tu-95 and Tu-22M3 bombers, while footage from Ukrainian sources of attacks on some bombers quickly spread.