Ukraine strikes eight Russian regions as pressure campaign intensifies, analyst says

Ukraine has launched several large scale drone attacks on Russia, with eight regions reporting strikes. An apartment block in the city of Oryol caught fire, and an oil depot in Rybinsk north of Moscow also burned, causing traffic restrictions. Marina Miron, a military analyst at King's College London, said Ukraine has adopted what US military theorist JC Wylie called a “cumulative strategy” – attacking logistics, fuel depots and rear areas not for single decisive blows but for a cumulative effect that disrupts Russia's war economy. While the economic impact may not be huge yet, the strikes create pressure on the Kremlin and Russia's General Staff, which must now reallocate resources to protect facilities from drones – a task its layered air defence was not designed for. Miron explained that the messaging targets multiple audiences: it shows Russian security forces failing to protect the homeland, brings the war to Russian civilians causing annoyance, demonstrates to Ukrainians that their forces still have capability despite a difficult battlefield situation, and signals to international audiences – especially before the Ankara summit in July – that Ukraine can strike deep despite Western refusal to provide long range missiles like Taurus. Ukraine is ramping up its own production of missiles and long range drones. On the seizure of a shadow tanker by the UK, Miron called it a dramatic shift in UK policy – the first time Royal Marines boarded a ship. It remains to be seen whether other European countries follow suit and how Russia will respond. She sees it as a further ladder of escalation between Russia and European NATO members.

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