Ihor Romanenko, Lieutenant General (Rtd), former deputy head of the Armed Forces General Staff and military expert, commented on the situation where the Kremlin would order the Russian army to launch air or missile strikes on Ukraine.
"Even these actions by Russia shouldn't be ruled out," Romanenko told Glavred during an online chat with the publication's readers.
"All this remains part of the plans of the general staff of the Russian armed forces," he added.
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The expert noted that, at the same time, applying such mechanisms "would mean a full-scale war with Ukraine, which Putin has not yet decided on."
"It is known that back in 2014, the advisor to the Russian president, Sergei Glazyev, recommended that Putin launch airstrikes on Ukraine. He suggested this, claiming that, over time, they would be less effective as, after all, Ukraine would restore its air defense capabilities," Romanenko said.
