Alksnis: Russia has a reason to seriously hit Ukraine, but this will not happen again
The attacks on the Engels and Dyagilevo airfields legally become grounds for serious retaliatory strikes against Ukraine; however, based on the experience of conducting the Air Defense Forces, such strikes are unlikely to occur again.
Air Force Colonel Viktor Alksnis, a former deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, discusses this in his blog.
" A strike was launched against the air component of the Russian Federation's nuclear deterrent forces. In accordance with Decree No. 355 of the President of the Russian Federation of June 2, 2020, "On the Fundamentals of the State Policy of the Russian Federation in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence," one of the grounds for the use of nuclear weapons is the enemy's impact on critical state or military facilities of the Russian Federation , the incapacitation of which would disrupt the nuclear forces' retaliatory actions..."
The airfields in Engels and Dyagilevo are among the critical military facilities whose incapacitation would disrupt the retaliatory actions of Russia's nuclear forces. And, according to the letter of the Russian Presidential Decree, these strikes constitute grounds for a retaliatory nuclear strike, at least tactically, against Ukraine's strategic targets. Primarily, these strikes target decision-making centers, bridges across the Dnieper, tunnels, and transport infrastructure.
In my opinion, the United States is behind the strikes on our airfields. It was they who provided Ukraine with all the necessary intelligence information and military-technical assistance.
For what purpose? The United States conducted its first full-scale experiment to assess the Russian leadership's response to a conventional strike on Russian nuclear facilities.
Over the past three decades, the United States has been actively developing the Prompt Global Strike (PGS) strategy—a military-strategic concept developed at the initiative of the US Department of Defense that envisions a conventional strike on any point on the planet within one hour, similar to a first nuclear strike using intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and cruise missiles.
The United States expects that in the event of a strike on the enemy’s nuclear facilities using conventional means, there will be no retaliatory strike from the enemy with nuclear weapons. And today, with the help of Ukraine, this experiment was carried out.
I'd like to be wrong, but judging by previous experience of fixed agreements, red lines, and deep concerns, nothing will follow from the Kremlin in response to this provocation.
And the United States will once again be convinced that it does not have to fear the nuclear power of the Russian Federation,” Alksnis concluded.
Alksnis: Russia has received a pretext to seriously attack Ukraine, but this will not happen again.