Defence expert believes drone strikes on Moscow 'weakens' Putin's image
The series of drone strikes on Moscow "weakens" President Vladimir Putin's image in Russia, leading to nationalists questioning his pursuit in Ukraine.
That's according to Professor Michael Clarke – a former head of the defence think tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) – who told the Sitrep podcast it shows that "Russia cannot be adequately defended, even from a... country like Ukraine, is the way that many people interpret it".
The former RUSI director general added: "Putin's critics, who are ultra-nationalist of course, critics on the more extreme end of the spectrum than him, say that this proves that Putin is not pursuing the war properly – so in that respect it weakens him."
Prof Clarke was analysing the recent Moscow drone strikes and what effect they have had on Putin's authority while on the BFBS Sitrep podcast.
The defence expert believes that Putin has already been "considerably weakened" in the last month, however, he added that "equally, they're (Russia) pushing really, really hard the idea that this war in Ukraine is actually the tip of a war that Nato is conducting against Russia, against the very existence of Russia".
Prof Clarke questions whether Ukraine is responsible for the strikes on Moscow, with the city being a considerable distance from the border, he believes it to most likely be someone on the inside operating under the guise of Ukraine.
Regarding the strikes on the Russian capital, he added: "It seems to be very ill-advised for the Ukrainians to strengthen that narrative because it strengthens Putin even more at home."
'Negligible military effect'
The former RUSI director general was then asked if he believed that Ukraine was somehow behind the drone strikes.
In response, Prof Clarke said: "I'm sure they know about them, they're being done in their name.
"My own view is that they should stop them happening if they do know about them, it is hard to imagine they don't."
Prof Clarke said he was "worried" about the strikes because it has "negligible military effect".
"It's obviously a political act, but it strengthens Putin's narrative that this war is really about an attack on Russia from the West, it strengthens that narrative and it worries the Western backers because it sort of threatens the idea of escalation that sooner or later Western weapons will be used in attacking Russia, and that's something the West has said must not happen and the Ukrainians has promised will not happen.
"But if it starts to happen even in the grey zone it will destroy Western support for Ukraine".
Ukraine 'playing with fire'
He added: "The Ukrainians seem to delight in the fact that these strikes take place, whoever is launching them.
"I just think they are playing with fire when they do that but, equally, drones are now intrinsic to this war, and even in Bakhmut... at any time of the day or night, there were at least 60 drones in the air around Bakhmut during that battle from both sides.
"This is a drone war, as much as it's a war of anything else, so I guess we've just got to accept that drones will be an intrinsic part of the strategies."
Ukraine distraction
Prof Clarke was asked by Sitrep if the strikes on Russian territory were potentially being used as a distraction by Ukraine to shroud attention to their slow counter-offensive in their own territory.
The professor of Defence Studies believes that "it might be" because the "progress is slow and it is beginning to worry them".
He added: "There is evidence that there is some pessimism now in Kyiv about what they can achieve in this offensive".
However, "they (Ukraine) still haven't committed everything yet, by any means, they've still got to launch the major part of their forces, but they hoped for bigger breakthroughs by now.
"I think partly for the sake of their own population as well as world opinion they want to show that they are vigorously pursuing the offensive by all means possible."
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