Ukraine s Drone Attack Roils Russia s Global Military Strategy – WSJ

KYIV, Ukraine Ukraine s unprecedented drone strikes on Russian air force bases weaken Moscow s ability to wage war on its smaller neighbor and undermine its capacity to threaten more distant rivals such as the U.S. a shift with potentially far-reaching geostrategic implications.

A sizable portion of the fleet Moscow uses to launch guided-missile attacks on Ukraine and would rely on to strike adversaries in the event of a nuclear war was damaged or destroyed in the coordinated attacks.

Russia no longer produces the decades-old Tupolev planes that were targeted in the attacks, meaning it has lost a cornerstone of its ability to project military power beyond its borders. Newer Russian planes are more modern and agile but lack vital characteristics of the destroyed bombers, most significantly their range and the quantity of munitions they can carry. According to Ukraine and open-source intelligence analysts, the attack also destroyed a rare plane Russia uses for airborne command-and-control, another capability vital to modern warfare.

Of more than 100 Tupolev bombers that Russia is known to have, Ukraine said it had damaged or destroyed more than 40. A full assessment will take time, but open-source intelligence analysts counted at least 14 damaged aircraft using satellite images and video posted online. It is unclear how many of the Tu-22s and Tu-95s were operational before the strikes.

via www.wsj.com

Ukraine is taking the route first charted by Israel. Only force works in international affairs.