Zelensky Adviser: Major Russian Cities Will Be 'Subject to Strikes'
U.S. just announced it would send Kyiv M1 Abrams tanks. Ukraine has since expressed hopes that F-16s will be next.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in an interview that it is only a matter of time before major Russian cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg are targeted in strikes.
“Internal escalation of the war in Russia is inevitable,” he said in an interview picked up by the Daily Beast. “Cities that are pampered, lazy, that thought they lived in a different reality, such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg, will be subject to strikes.”
He said that Ukraine has no intention of being behind the strikes, but as The Trends Journal has noted, Kyiv has expanded its strikes as the war progressed.
Dmitry Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister who has been one of the most outspoken advocates of more weapons and war, was caught in a prank Zoom video admitting to being behind attacks on civilian infrastructure in Crimea and Belgorod.
The White House gave Ukraine a wink and a nod before the incident, reports said.
The Grayzone, an investigative news website, reported that it obtained an April 2022 presentation that showed British intelligence drew up plans on how the bridge could be taken out. The website noted that the truck bombing was different from the strategy laid out in the British plans.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson – at about the same time these plans were being drawn up—torpedoed the idea that Kyiv should negotiate with the Kremlin. (The website posted a PDF of the documents here.)
The report of the British plan was not all that surprising given how U.S. officials spoke about the bridge.
WSWS.org noted that Philip Breedlove, the U.S. general who was NATO’s former supreme allied commander in Europe, called the Kerch bridge a “legitimate target.”
He was quoted in The Times of London in July saying, “Several people I have spoken to say ‘dropping’ [destroying] Kerch bridge would be a huge blow to Russia. Kerch bridge is a legitimate target.”
Podolyak took to Twitter after the explosion, “Crimea, the bridge, the beginning. Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled.”
Alexander Vindman, the former director for European Affairs for the U.S.’s National Security Council, tweeted a photo of the bridge engulfed in flames and posted, “I’ve been dreaming of this moment.”
Western officials believe Moscow’s threat to use tactical nuclear weapons in defense of its territories is all bluster and see weakness in Russia’s hesitancy, giving new rise to the push to help Kyiv retake the Crimean Peninsula.
Anonymous officials said the White House is becoming more comfortable with assisting Kyiv the take on Russian forces on the peninsula, The New York Times reported.
The feeling in Washington is Russia would not follow through on its threat of using its tactical nuclear weapon arsenal to defend Crimea, the home port of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. The peninsula has also provided Russia another launching pad for its missile barrages fired deeper inside Ukraine.
Podolyak said the “logic of war” means all of Russia will become invovled and “various blows will be dealt to various targets. Why, by whom, and what for? That’s another question.”
TRENDPOST: Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s national security council, said in an interview with Al Jazeera that Moscow could target Western cities if Ukrainian forces fire these advanced rocket systems into Russia.
“If, God forbid, these weapons are used against Russian territory then our armed forces will have no other choice but to strike decision-making centers,” he said. He continued, “Of course, it needs to be understood that the final decision-making centers in this case, unfortunately, are not located on the territory of Kyiv.”
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Medvedev said, “One can have different attitudes to it, one can believe that the horsemen of the Apocalypse are already on their way and all hope is in Almighty God. However, one can still try to tone down this international situation.”
The faster Zelenskyy ends up hanging with a rope around his neck, the better.
Thank you for your journalism.