NATO warned to brace for Russian attack after Ukraine targets Putin's airfields in drone blitz

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

The NATO military alliance is being warned to prepare for a possible attack by Russia in the next four years.
The warning comes after Ukraine blitzed two of Russia's most critical airfields in a devastating drone assault.
The audacious strike has been called a 'black day for Russian aviation' - and now defense experts are warning Moscow is 'building up stocks' for a possible offensive against NATO's Baltic state members.
German General Carsten Breuer said Russia poses a 'very serious threat' to the Western defense bloc, the likes of which he has never seen in his 40-year military career.'
NATO comprises 32 member countries, including the United States and the UK, and was established in 1949 to counter the threat from the then Soviet Union following the end of the Second World War.
The warning comes amid one of Ukraine's most audacious attacks, in which it used a swarm of kamikaze drones unleashed from the backs of trucks to devastate $7billion worth of equipment at two of Russia's most critical airfields.
Ukraine's security service, the SBU, claimed to have destroyed '34 per cent of strategic cruise missile carriers at the main airfields of the Russian Federation.'
President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as one for the 'history books,' revealing it took 18 months to plan the top-secret mission dubbed Operation Spiderweb.
He added that 117 drones were used - each with its own pilot - and that the headquarters of the operation were 'right next to the FSB,' Russia's security service.
Ukrainian aviation expert Valeriy Romanenko called it 'a black day for Russian aviation.'
Breuer pointed to the massive increase in Vladimir Putin's armory and ammunitions stock, including a massive output of 1,500 main battle tanks every year as well as the four million rounds of 152mm artillery munition produced in 2024 alone.
He said that not all of the additional military equipment was going to Ukraine, which signaled a possible building up of capabilities that could be used against the NATO bloc, adding that Baltic states were at a particularly high risk of being attacked.
'There's an intent and there's a build up of the stocks' for a possible future attack on NATO's Baltic state members,' he told the BBC.
'This is what the analysts are assessing - in 2029. So we have to be ready by 2029... If you ask me now, is this a guarantee that's not earlier than 2029? I would say no, it's not. So we must be able to fight tonight,' he said.
Breuer said that the Suwalki Gap, a region that borders Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Belarus, was particularly vulnerable to Russian military activity.
'The Baltic states are really exposed to the Russians, right? And once you are there, you really feel this... in the talks we are having over there,' he said.
The Estonians, he said, had given the analogy of being close to a wildfire where they 'feel the heat, see the flames and smell the smoke,' while in Germany 'you probably see a little bit of smoke over the horizon and not more.'
Earlier this week, David Petraeus, a respected former U.S. general and CIA chief, claimed Lithuania would be most at risk to an attack from Russia.
He said Russia could launch an incursion into that Baltic state to test Western resolve or as a precursor to a wider offensive.
Breuer urged fellow NATO nations to build up their militaries again, following a long period of demilitarization across dozens of nations.
'What we have to do now is really to lean in and to tell everybody, hey, ramp up... get more into it because we need it,' he said.
'We need it to be able to defend ourselves and therefore also to build up deterrence.'
But with NATO apparently falling apart, amid a surge of distrust between each of its member states, Breuer was quick to allay fears that NATO wouldn't be cohesive enough to fight Russia.
He pointed to Finland and Sweden's ascension into the bloc: 'I've never seen such a unity like it is now' among nations and military leaders.
'All of them understand the threat that is at the moment approaching NATO, all understand that we have to develop a direction of deterrence, into the direction of collective defense. This is clear to everyone. The urgency is seen.'
NATO members Hungary and Slovakia have, since Russia invaded Ukraine, developed closer relations with Putin, in many instances using their powers in groups like the EU and NATO to push the dictator's agenda.
And U.S. President Donald Trump, who commands the largest military in the bloc, has consistently sided with Putin on military matters, especially when it comes to NATO.
Just yesterday his envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, declared that Russia's historic feud with NATO were 'fair.'
Asked by ABC News about a Reuters report that Russia wanted a written pledge over NATO not enlarging eastwards to include Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, Kellogg said: 'It's a fair concern.'
'We've said that to us, Ukraine coming into NATO is not on the table, and we're not the only country that says that.'
Addressing the drone attack on Russian territory, Zelensky said on social media that the operation had 'an absolutely brilliant result,' adding it was 'achieved solely by Ukraine.
He said in a post: 'One year, six months, and nine days from the start of planning to effective execution.
'Our most long-range operation. Our people involved in preparing the operation were withdrawn from Russian territory in time.
'Of course, not everything can be revealed at this moment, but these are Ukrainian actions that will undoubtedly be in history books.
'Ukraine is defending itself, and rightly so – we are doing everything to make Russia feel the need to end this war. Russia started this war, Russia must end it. Glory to Ukraine!'
He added that 117 drones were used, each with their own individual pilot.
He added: 'The most interesting thing - and we can already say this publicly - is that the "office" of our operation on Russian territory was located right next to the FSB of Russia in one of their regions.'
Two remote military airfields, Olenya in the Arctic Murmansk region and Belaya in eastern Siberia, were rocked by massive explosions overnight, with dramatic footage showing fires raging for hours.
The bases, located thousands of miles from Ukraine, are key to Russia's nuclear strike capability and were considered untouchable.
Yet Ukraine appears to have struck them with deadly precision, using first-person-view (FPV) drones launched from unmarked vans parked near the airfields.
Both are thousands of miles from Ukraine but were 'under drone attack', with dozens of Moscow 's nuclear capable warplanes evidently destroyed.
Olenya airbase is home to Russia 's aging fleet of Tu-95 'Bear' bombers - used both for conventional missile strikes and capable of launching nuclear weapons against the West.
Several of the aircraft were reportedly left exposed in the open, despite repeated Ukrainian attacks on similar facilities.
Ablaze, too, was Belaya nuclear airbase in eastern Siberia's Irkutsk region - some 2,900 miles from Ukraine.
More alarmingly, the strikes have triggered frenzied calls within Russia's military circles for a nuclear response.
'Disabling strategic aircraft gives Russia the right to use nuclear weapons,' declared pro-Kremlin war analyst Vladislav Pozdnyakov. 'Let me remind you.'
Russia's nuclear doctrine allows for a nuclear response in the event of an attack on 'critical government or military infrastructure.'
In particular, 'an enemy attack that disrupts the operation of nuclear forces, threatening Russia's ability to respond' could lead to Putin ordering an atomic strike.
Ukraine's SBU secret service was reportedly conducting a large-scale special operation to destroy Russian bombers.