Vladimir Putin is said to have faced renewed calls to “declare war” on Ukraine following Kyiv’s audacious drone attacks on four air bases deep inside Russia. The US estimates more than 20 Russian bombers were damaged in the attacks by Ukraine’s SBU security service after drones were smuggled into the country and launched from lorries.
The attacks, dubbed Operation Spider Web, took 18 months to plan, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said they would “undoubtedly be in history books.” But inside the Kremlin, there was “shock and outrage,” according to a high-ranking official. Among Russia’s hardline nationalist elite, there is reportedly a growing feeling that the Russian President has not gone far enough in Ukraine and should formally declare war.
There are calls for Russia to recruit a million more men and take out the Ukrainian Government with daily strikes on Kyiv, reports The Telegraph, which spoke to Kremlin insiders, on the condition of anonymity, over whether the Ukrainian attacks could prompt further escalation by Russia.
A high-ranking Russian government official told the newspaper: “Explosions, drones, sabotage, and possibly even terrorist attacks are what the future may hold for us if the Zelensky regime is not completely destroyed.”
The official reportedly described himself as hawkish and admitted sympathising with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the former leader of the mercenary Wagner Group, who died in a plane crash in 2023.
He claimed: “If Ukraine ceases to exist in its current form, the criminal underground will be demoralised.”
A former Kremlin official, who previously directed operations against Ukraine, said Operation Spider Web did not “catalyse a political discussion or a change in the format of military operations”.
While another contact, based in an analytical centre close to the Kremlin’s defence ministry, said: “Could the president declare war on Kyiv? Right now, unlikely. As cynical as it may sound, the leadership is satisfied with the current situation.”
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 but continues to refer to the war as a “special military operation”.
Both the UK and Ukraine estimate Russia has suffered more than one casualty during the conflict, with no signs of an imminent peace deal despite continued efforts by the Trump administration.