Russia's 'risk appetite' evolving after launching waves of attack drones, defence intelligence reports
Russia has conducted several waves of strikes against Ukrainian ports close to Nato borders and a drone strike just 200 metres from the Romanian border, according to the latest Ministry of Defence intelligence update.
The report also says that Vladimir Putin's "risk appetite" has increased and his forces may be using smaller drones to prevent any conventional weapons from veering off course and causing "escalation" with Nato.
In its latest report, the MOD says that in the past two weeks, Russian forces have "conducted several waves of strikes against Ukrainian ports on the Danube River using Iranian-produced one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAVs).
"It is highly likely attempting to coerce international shipping into stopping trading via the ports."
"OWA UAVs have struck targets as close as 200 metres from the Romanian border, suggesting that Russia has evolved its risk appetite for conducting strikes near Nato territory," the intelligence report added.
It goes on to say that "there is a realistic possibility that Russia is using OWA UAVs to strike this area in the belief they are less likely to risk escalation than cruise missiles: Russia likely considers them as acceptably accurate, and they have much smaller warheads than cruise missiles."
This comes after a former British Army general says that the Ukraine war is approaching a potentially decisive turning point.
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