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06/02/2025
June 2, 2025 Military expert: Ukrainian strikes are a 'signal' to Russia, and to allies
While the Russian Air Force has suffered a significant loss of capability from Ukraine's drone strikes on its airfields, Moscow will still be able to launch attacks against Ukraine from Russian territory, military expert Carlo Masala has told DW.
Masala, an international politics professor at the Bundeswehr University Munich, said Russia would still have the ability to continue attacking Ukraine from Russian airspace with glide bombs, cruise missiles, and rockets.
However, he said it was interesting that the attacks had been launched from inside Russia and had been so long in the planning.
"It is indeed a spectacular operation, considering that, according to Ukraine, it had been prepared for 15 to 18 months, [and that] it took place in Russia," said Masala. "So, no long-range drones were involved."
He also said the strikes would be of symbolic importance, particularly for Ukraine's allies.
"It is a signal to Russia about what they are capable of. It is a signal to the West about what they are capable of."
"In recent months, we've only been discussing the weakening Ukrainian armed forces in Donbas, which are struggling to hold the front and Russian territorial gains, albeit few," said Masala.
"Now Ukraine is once again demonstrating that it is capable of things that no one really expected of it. Therefore, this is an important symbolic signal to the states supporting Ukraine."
Ukraine estimates the damage at approximately $7 billion (about €6.1 billion), claiming that about 34% of Russia's strategic cruise missile carriers were affected.