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Ukraine’s President Zelensky said the attacks on Russian territory were an “inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process” of the conflict and hinted more was to come.<\/p>\n
Reuben Johnson a security expert and advisor to the US Pentagon, told the Express that the UAV strikes on Moscow were designed to have a “tremendous morale boosting impact” on the Ukrainians and an opposite effect on the Russians.<\/p>\n
“When they are going after these buildings in Moscow, which by the way are government buildings in the most modern part of Moscow – an area called Moscow city – when they do those I put them into the same category as striking the Kerch bridge – both of these enterprises are like vanity projects for Vladimir Putin,” he said.<\/p>\n
Over the years Ukraine’s army has developed a military doctrine known as “Reflective Control”, which is also used by the Russians and Chinese but not so much by the West.<\/p>\n
Mr Johnson said Kyiv is using its drones in line with the principles of this military doctrine.<\/p>\n
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“Reflective control is when you take action that causes your enemy unknowingly to make wrong decisions,” he explained.<\/p>\n
“You will do something somewhere, whether it’s an attack, a feint, psychological warfare, whether it’s false information – you will do that in a way you hope the other guy is going to react in a way you want him to and he doesn’t realise that this is what is behind your actions.<\/p>\n
“And I put some of those drone strikes into that category.”<\/p>\n
Asked to specify an instance that best exemplified the use of the “reflective control” doctrine, the Pentagon advisor pointed to last year’s sinking of the Moskva warship.<\/p>\n
The cruiser was the flagship of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet and sank after being hit by Neptune missiles.<\/p>\n
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Don’t miss… <\/strong> However, the initial phase of the attack on the warship was carried out by drones, which acted as a decoy.<\/p>\n “They sent some drones against the cruiser which made the crew turn all its anti-craft assets in the direction of the drones,” he explained. “Ukraine then fired the anti-ship missiles, the Neptunes, from a completely different direction – so hit them where they were not looking – that was masterful.”<\/p>\n Mr Johnson said Ukraine has around 28 different drone models and that UAV strikes on Russia would only increase as Kyiv starts to put more of them into the field.<\/p>\n Although they lose a lot, they are able to replace them quickly. He added that the Ukrainians were also increasingly able to penetrate Russia’s fabled electronic warfare and defence systems.<\/p>\n “Russian electronic warfare systems were built to combat and be effective against big expensive American weapons systems and to a lesser extent against weapon systems of our NATO allies,” he said.<\/p>\n “They would not be optimised to be effective against very low tech UAVs and drones.<\/p>\n “A lot of the expertise in electronic warfare and defence electronics that existed in the old Soviet Union – a lot of that was resident in Ukraine and the Ukrainians know a tremendous amount about Russian electronic warfare.<\/p>\n “There’s probably no country in the world that would be better prepared to design something that could evade what the Russians have in the way of electronic warfare.”<\/p>\n
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