Retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax that Ukrainian drone strikes in Russia are designed to show the Russian people that their country is vulnerable to attack.
Holt made his comments Tuesday during an interview on Newsmax's "Wake Up America."
Asked whether Ukrainian drone attacks inside Russia is a "smart play" by Ukraine, Holt said: "It might be. We have to look at it in terms of what is militarily in the best interests of the Ukrainian people. Taking the war to the enemy, where they're originating these devastating missile attacks on Ukraine, could well be in their interests because you're decreasing popular support for the war in Russia. That pressure is going to apply to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.
"The range of the drones is not completely well-known because these are Ukrainian-made drones."
Holt said the Ukrainian military is showing Russians that they can target "just outside of Moscow by a couple of hundred kilometers. So could they reach Moscow? They're showing that they probably could. They are trying to transmit that the Russian are vulnerable there."
The drone attacks targeted the Engels base in the Saratov region on the Volga River and the Dyagilevo base in the Ryazan region in western Russia, The Associated Press said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the attacks were part of Ukraine's efforts to curtail Russia's long-range bomber force, the ministry said.
Holt said Russia's attacks on Ukraine's power grid has taken a toll.
"So may be as much as 80% if the entire grid of Ukraine is now down," he said. "They're going to be working feverishly working to put this back together. But the parts for the grids themselves — they are running out of those.
"It's going to get harder, not easier, in the days ahead."
Holt noted that February will mark a year since the Russian invasion.
"In the West you see Europe and the U.S. bickering over economics, rightly so, and Putin's inner circle is drying up fast, and how long can the Ukrainian people hang on? And it's a race to see who will buckle first. What will happen is something going to give."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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