Ukrainian intelligence chief says expect deeper drone attacks into Russia

The head of Ukrainian military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov recently told reporters from ABC News that the world should expect to see more attacks deeper inside Russian territory. 

In an interview with ABC News's Britt Clennett, Budanov refused to clarify if Ukraine had attacked targets inside of Russia but mentioned that the strikes would continue and they would penetrate “deeper and deeper” into Russian territory. 

Ukrainian officials have yet to officially take credit for any of the recent attacks on Russian air bases, including the attack that hit Engels Air Force Base on December 26th. 

The December 26th attack was the second time the Engels Air Force Base had been targeted and the attack killed three Russian servicemen. 

The first attack on Engel’s air base occurred on December 5th and it was the first time Ukrainian forces carried out an attack deep within Russia’s borders with what was rumored to be outdated military drones from the Soviet era. 

When Clennett asked about the recent attacks against targets in Crimea, Budnanov noted that Ukraine could do whatever it wanted within its territory. 

“Crimea is Ukrainian territory,” Budnanov noted, “we can use any weapon on our territory.”

Both countries have been waging war from the air to undermine the position of the other in the conflict. 

Russia began its major missile offensive against Ukrainian infrastructure in mid-October after President Vladimir Putin fired General Gennady Zhidko and replaced him with Sergey Surovikin.

Nicknamed General Armageddon because of his disastrous bombing of civilian targets and infrastructure during the Syrian Civil War, Surovikin quickly shifted Russian tactics towards targeting and eliminating Ukraine’s key energy infrastructure with tactical heavy bombers, cruise missiles, and Iranian-made Shadad drones. 

“Moscow’s months-long missile and kamikaze drone campaign has targeted power infrastructure in a bid to test Kyiv’s resolve in the cold winter months,” wrote Financial Times journalist Roman Olearchyk in an article on Russia’s most recent attack in mid-December. 

But after a number of increasingly damaging attacks, Ukraine responded by targeting many of the bases that housed Russia’s tactical bombers and began their own drone swarm attacks against targets in Crimea. 

So far Ukraine’s attacks have been met with great success but more importantly, they exposed the glaring gaps in Russia’s air defense according to Reuters reporters Pavel Polityuk and Sergiy Chalyi.

In early December, Russian authorities confirmed that Ukrainian drones were responsible for the attack in Russia in a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense. 

"The Kyiv regime, in order to disable Russian long-range aircraft, made attempts to strike with Soviet-made unmanned jet aerial vehicles at the military airfields Dyagilevo, in the Ryazan region, and Engels, in the Saratov region," the Russian defense ministry statement said, calling the attack a “terrorist act”. 

Unfortunately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that new intelligence suggests Russia is planning to escalate its attacks in “a protracted campaign of drone attacks in a bid to demoralize Ukraine,” according to Matt Murphy of BBC News

"We must ensure - and we will do everything for this - that this goal of terrorists fails like all the others," Zelensky said during one of his nightly addresses from Kyiv. "Now is the time when everyone involved in the protection of the sky should be especially attentive."