Sputnik
The Kremlin was attacked by a pair of explosive drones early Wednesday morning, with the UAVs downed by anti-drone defenses before causing major damage. The Kremlin accused Kiev of trying to assassinate President Vladimir Putin. Scott Ritter puts things into perspective, commenting on how the US would respond to this sort of provocation.
Officials in Washington and Kiev have joined forces to deny any involvement in Wednesday’s drone attack on the Moscow Kremlin. "We don't attack [Vladimir] Putin or Moscow. We fight on our territory. We are defending our villages and cities," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured Wednesday during a visit to Finland.
"I can assure you that there was no involvement by the United States. Whatever it was did not involve us," White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby chimed in. "We don't endorse, nor do we encourage, we do not support attacks on individual leaders," the spokesman said.
The Russian government holds a different view, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov saying Thursday that Moscow knows "very well that the decisions to carry out such actions, such terrorist attacks, are not made in Kiev," but rather "in Washington."
"Such decisions, determining targets, determining means and so on, this is all dictated to Kiev by Washington," Peskov said.
Investigators have opened a criminal case into the incident, and Moscow has vowed to respond in kind at a time and place of its choosing.
"Let's just put this in perspective: if a hostile nation that was actively engaged in combat operations against the United States stated that they believe that striking the White House would be fair game, and then two drones struck the White House, I think we could assume that a) the hostile power that threatened to strike the White House was behind this attack, and b) that the United States would be fully justified in holding those who perpetrated such an attack to full account," former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter told Sputnik.
Sooner or later, he said, Russia will complete its investigation and determine with certainty who was responsible for the drone attack –including what kind of UAVs were used, what kinds of guidance systems were on board, etc.
"But in the meantime I think it’s safe to state with near certainty that Ukraine or Ukrainian proxies were behind this attack and that it was carried out with the full knowledge and permission of the Ukrainian government. Which means the Ukrainian government is now a legitimate target for any Russian retaliation," Ritter said.
Ritter suspects Washington had prior knowledge of the attack, either approving it directly or knowing about it and making no effort to prevent it from taking place.
The observer dismissed any suggestion that the escalation and provocation may be a sign of President Volodymyr Zelensky "going rogue," doing something illogical or against the wishes of Kiev's Western patrons.
Zelensky is trying to perpetrate an escalation of this crisis to break Russia out of the current comfort zone it enjoys in terms of its military supremacy, to redefine this conflict with the potential of either getting more equipment, such as F-16 fighters, or getting active NATO involvement. Either way, Ukraine understands that unless something happens, it’s going to lose this conflict," Ritter stressed.
As for the Biden administration’s behavior, Ritter noted that US policy throughout the Ukraine crisis has consistently been about "escalating” the conflict, "expanding this conflict, dragging this conflict out because ultimately, their stated objective is the strategic defeat of Russia.
And with that comes the infliction of so much pain on Russia and the Russian military that Russia would never again seek to do something like the invasion of Ukraine, the initiation of the special military operation in February of 2022."
As evidence, Ritter pointed to the $300 million in additional direct US military aid to Kiev announced by Washington just this week, designed to facilitate a Ukrainian spring offensive, whose ultimate goal is to bring “pain and suffering to Russia and hopefully achieve the strategic defeat of Russia.”
"We'll find out if this is a gross miscalculation, because again we have to come back to what started this: two drones hit the Kremlin, and I can guarantee you if two drones hit the White House, the people who perpetrated that attack would cease to exist. That's probably the future of Zelensky's government," Ritter summed up.
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