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UKRAINE is proving it can beat Russia as a deadly drone barrage has struck Moscow leaving Vladimir Putin “rattled”, an ex-colonel says.
Kyiv hammered Moscow overnight with over 140 suicide drones striking key airports and a residential area just 30 miles south of the Kremlin.
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AFP
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It’s the biggest drone strike on Moscow so far – an event becoming increasingly common – and comes as the brave country still holds land in Kursk.
Now one expert says Putin has been left shaken by the massive strike in the heart of his empire.
Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon said drones hitting residential buildings in the heart of Russia makes the dictator look weak.
He said: “I understand from contacts in the intelligence world that Putin is rattled.
“He’s really rattled.”
For the last two and a half years, Putin has been able to keep the war at an “arm’s length” from the key centres of the country.
But now, de Bretton-Gordon said, even the tightly controlled Russian media were unable to hide video of the attacks being shared online.
He said: “Nobody can deny that these drones, explosive drones are creating damage in Moscow. Everybody is is seeing it.
“And and actually there are an awful lot of Russians posting on social media [about the attack].”
Strikes in Moscow could make Putin look weak and even mean his oligarch pals may turn him, said another expert.
Alan Mendoza, the executive director of The Henry Jackson Society, said Ukraine was “humiliating” Putin.
He said: “All he appears to be achieving is weakening Russia, making it appear, you know, humiliated on the world stage.
“And the more of these attacks that happen, the more that’s going to be the case.”
Mendoza said the more Russia was humiliated the more questions would be asked about what the point of the war is.
EPA
Twitter / @alanmendozaAnd questions would even be asked about what the point of Putin as a leader was.
He said: “He seems incapable of protecting Russia from the consequences of its [Russia’s] own aggression.”
Foreign Secretary David Lammy met the US’ top diplomat Antony Blinken today with the pair discussing Ukraine.
Both experts agreed that if Ukraine wants to win the war it needed to keep striking targets deep inside Russia.
For that, Ukraine needs the UK and US to loosen current restrictions on supplied long range missiles.
de Bretton-Gordon said it would make a “profound difference” on whether it could win if it could hit airfields and sites deeps inside Russia.
He said: “You know we should allow them to play with the full set of cards, as it were, the full team.
“Because winning is the only thing that matters here.”
Blinken said US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Keir Starmer may discuss removing missile red lines on Friday.
Just days ago, former US Army Commander Lieutenant General Ben Hodges told The Sun how oligarchs could end up turning on Putin.
Hodges said sanctions placed by the West could be a pivotal factor in bringing down Vlad as they have severely curtailed their lives.
He said: “At some point, they will say ‘I can’t go see my mistress on the Adriatic. I can’t send my kids to school in London anymore or Stanford’.
“Then I think potentially something happens.”
The constant battles have prompted Putin to announce he is “ready to negotiate” just weeks after Ukrainian soldiers burst into Russia.
Putin said the Kremlin is willing to revisit a failed deal from mediated talks between Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul early on in the war.
He said last Thursday China, India and Brazil could act as mediators in potential new peace talks.
“If there is a desire of Ukraine to carry on with the negotiations, I can do that.”
The dictator has previously floated peace talks – but has always insisted that Russia would take, or get to keep, occupied Ukrainian territory.
Kyiv has previously said it will not directly engage with Russia during any negotiations to end the war and has been steadfast on not giving up any of its territory.
Ukraine invaded Kursk through the Sumy border-region on August 6 – taking Vladimir Putin’s armies by surprise and stealing swathes of territory.
They now claim to control over 500 square miles of Putin’s territory in Russia’s worst defeat on home soil since World War Two.
Ukraine’s President Zelensky said the blitz was part of a master plan to help end the war.
It served a humiliating blow to Putin’s efforts – as the so-called “special operation” he said would last just weeks in early 2022 approaches the three-year mark.
Footage has revealed the true extent of Ukraine’s success in Kursk with hordes of Russian soldiers surrendering and being taken as prisoners of war.
Raging Putin hit back with indiscriminate air attacks on Ukrainian cities as he licks his wounds from the crushing defeat.
Putin's closest oligarch pals
Roman Abramovich, net worth: £7.5billion
The ex-Chelsea football club owner is one of the most well-known Russian oligarchs due to his time in England.
The 57-year-old politician and business mogul was forced to sell off Chelsea in 2022 after being hit with sanctions but he didn’t get any of the proceeds from the sale.
He owns stakes in Russian steel giant Evraz and nickel producer Norilsk Nickel.
Vladimir Potanin, net worth: £19billion
With a worth of an estimated £19billion, Potanin was once regarded as the second richest man in Russia and the 10th wealthiest in the world.
He was on the US Treasury’s list of individuals closely associated with Putin.
After making his money on loans-for-shares in Russia, he now owns Interros.
Interros is a Russian conglomerate with stakes in mining, energy, finance, retail and others sectors.
Gennady Timchenko, net worth: £17.3billion
Worth an estimated £17.3billion, Timchenko, 71, has been a close ally with Putin since the 90s.
He has had his assets frozen and been banned from travelling to Britain due to his connection to the invasion of Ukraine.
Timchenko has links to Russian oil as he co-founded Gunvor, the fourth largest crude oil trader.
The company has since severed ties with the oligarch.
He is a shareholder in Rossiya – one of the Russian banks that Boris Johnson sanctioned when he was the PM.
Vladimir Lisin, net worth: £20billion
Listed on the US Treasury’s Putin list, Lisin, 68, owns Novolipetsk Steel, one of Russia’s largest steel companies.
In 2020, he donated 123 million rubles to help save children with spinal muscular atrophy.
In 2010 he was named as the richest man in Russia.
Boris Rotenberg, net worth: £886million
Another one of the oligarchs to be hit with sanctions by the UK is Boris Rotenberg, 68.
He is worth £886million and was a childhood friend and judo sparring partner of Putin.
He co-owns SMP Bank and has been sanctioned for using his role at the bank to support the Russian government.
Vladimir Litvinenko, net worth: £2.3billion
One of the more familiar names of the Putin era is Vladimir Litvinenko, 69.
He was Putin’s campaign manager, owns shares in Russian chemical company PhosAgro and is the rector of Saint Petersburg Mining University since the 90s.
According to Forbes he is worth around £2.3billion.
Leonid Mikhelson, net worth: £21billion
The 69-year-old Mikhelson is the CEO of Novatek, which is the second largest natural gas producer in Russia.
He is worth around £21billion and is closely associated with Timchenko as well as Putin.
Mikhelson also has a reported 30.6 percent stake in Zao Sibur which is Russia’s largest petrochemicals company.
AFP
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