A photo shared on the Telegram Channel of the governor of Russia’s Leningrad region shows a blaze at a Russian natural gas producer in January 2024. Local media blamed Ukrainian drones, but Ukraine has not claimed responsibility.
Telegram Channel of Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko via AP
Ukraine’s intelligence chief told CNN there may be more attacks on Russian soil.He talked about a hypothetical plan that would hit critical infrastructure and military targets.Ukraine doesn’t claim responsibility for strikes on Russian soil, including on energy infrastructure.
Ukraine’s intelligence chief hinted that his country would conduct more attacks on Russian soil following a string of unclaimed attacks that took place on Russia’s oil and gas infrastructure.
Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s defense intelligence directorate, told CNN that drone attacks on Russian soil were “quite possible.”
“Hypothetically, there is a plan according to which all this happens,” he said. “And I believe that this plan includes all the major critical infrastructure facilities and military infrastructure facilities of the Russian Federation.”
Over the past few weeks, Ukraine appears to have been targeting oil and gas infrastructure in Russia with small, cheap drones that can bypass Russian air defenses, as Business Insider’s Alia Shoaib reported.
In the interview with CNN, Budanov refused to take responsibility for drone attacks that have taken place on Russian soil, which is in line with Ukraine’s usual response to such events.
Ukraine has largely refused to take responsibility when attacks happen in Russia, although it sometimes hints at its involvement.
Budanov said attacks on Russian soil mean the country’s citizens finally “see the real picture,” and that helps Ukraine.
“They see burning oil depots, destroyed buildings in factories and plants, and so on. This is all beneficial,” he said.
Russia restricts information about the conflict to its citizens, and punishes criticism of it, all while painting its invasion as a positive for Ukrainians.
One expert told Business Insider last year that drone attacks on Moscow meant that Russians were being forced to stop ignoring the war.
Attacks within Russia appear to have made use of older, Soviet-era weaponry, or drones that Ukraine could get without Western help.
Ukraine’s allies have said that they don’t want the weaponry they’ve given to be used against targets on Russian soil, something Ukraine has agreed to.
Ukraine is busy manufacturing more of its own weaponry, including a missile that could hit targets 930 miles inside Russia. Ukraine says it would use such weapons to hit military targets, not civilian ones.
Ukraine’s navy chief told Sky News this week that Ukraine would win the war faster if it had been given long-range weapons earlier, and was allowed to use them to hit inside Russia.
Jan Kallberg, a defense and security expert at the Centre for European Policy Analysis, told BI in a recent interview that it was unfair to Ukraine that it cannot strike into Russia even though Russian launches many strikes from within its own borders.
“It is not fair to Ukrainians that they get hit in Kyiv as they sit in a coffee shop by a missile that is just targeting the civilian population,” he said. “Meanwhile, the whole infrastructure in Russia just across the border is unaffected, which can easily be hit.”