Ukraine’s long-range drones are very effective and cheaper than Western missiles, and Kiev doesn’t need anyone else’s permission to deploy them, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has argued.
Kiev has been clamoring for Western long-range weapons and permission to use them for strikes deep inside Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that this would mean open conflict with the West and proposed changing Moscow’s nuclear doctrine accordingly.
Speaking to reporters after the NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Friday, Austin dodged the question about Western long-range missiles that implied Putin’s “nuclear blackmail” was successful.
He also denied that the US may have told Ukraine to stop striking deep into Russia with drones.
“We’ve seen Ukrainians use their long-range UAV strike capability to great effect,” Austin told reporters. “They’re able to produce these UAVs in Ukraine. They’re able to scale that production rapidly. The UAV’s have proven to be very effective and accurate.”
“When you consider the fact that one precision guided missile costs, in some cases, close to $1 million – depending on what it is – and these UAVs they can produce in great numbers at a fraction of the cost,” Austin continued. “So you look at the balance sheet, and the effects that are being created on the battlefield, I think this is a great capability.”
“How they use the capability that they’re producing is going to be their call,” the Pentagon head noted.
Earlier this year, Ukraine launched a series of drone attacks on Russian infrastructure, including oil depots and refineries. The US government reportedly pressured Kiev to end the strikes, out of concern that they could substantially disrupt oil prices during the election year.
Austin himself told the Senate in April that he was worried about “knock-on effect in terms of the global energy situation” from Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries. Meanwhile, one of his deputies Celeste Wallander told lawmakers that the strikes “have not significantly altered Russia’s ability to prosecute the war.
Moscow’s response to Kiev’s drone offensive was a series of missile strikes that crippled Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Ukrainian long-range attacks have become much less frequent since.
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