Analysts warn Kyiv should avoid striking nuclear infrastructure after it carries out another attack on Russian territory<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
By James Kilner<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Ukrainian drone strike<\/a> on a Russian radar station that can track nuclear missiles has sparked alarm in the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kyiv hit the Armavir radar station in the Krasnodar border region on May 23, damaging the state-of-the-art facility, which provides conventional air defence as well as forming part of Moscow\u2019s nuclear warning system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ukrainian officials confirmed on Saturday that their forces had carried out the strike, saying the facility monitors airspace over the country and occupied Crimea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The radar station has reportedly been able to track long-range Atacms missiles, delivered by the US to Ukraine earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mauro Gilli, a senior researcher at the Centre for Security Studies at ETH Zurich, said the drone strike had been a tactical success because it will force Russia to redeploy air defence systems and it also put down a marker that no Russian military site was untouchable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe can debate the effectiveness and merit but strategically there is logic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other Western analysts, though, were more hesitant and said that Ukraine should avoid striking Russia\u2019s nuclear infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNot a wise decision on the part of Ukraine,\u201d said Hans Kristensen, a nuclear arsenal expert at the Federation of American Scientists. \u201cBombers and military sites in general are different because they\u2019re used to attack Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thord Are Iversen, a Norwegian military analyst, said striking a part of Russia\u2019s nuclear warning system was \u201cnot a particularly good idea\u2026 especially in times of tension.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s in everyone\u2019s best interest that Russia\u2019s ballistic missile warning system works well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Kremlin views its nuclear military facilities as prestige projects and striking them is considered particularly provocative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of Russia\u2019s most modern radar systems, the Kremlin has deployed 10 Voronezh class installations along the Russian border. Each has a range of around 4,000 miles and can track 500 objects simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russia has yet to comment on the alleged attack, but it fits a pattern of intensified Ukrainian drone strikes this year on targets deep inside Russia, including oil refineries and transport hubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The strike came shortly after Moscow began tactical nuclear missile exercises in its Southern Military District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Olaf Scholz has pointedly refused to deliver Germany\u2019s long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, saying he fears potential nuclear escalation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The US has so far not relented to Ukrainian requests that it be allowed to use Western weapons<\/a> in cross-border strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Frustrated Ukrainian military commanders said they had to watch as Russia built up forces across the border in a de facto harbour area that they were not allowed to strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/content\/dam\/world-news\/2024\/05\/26\/TELEMMGLPICT000379522527_17167397821060_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqwQ1UW2vHZOAwFgbhBtgFVM227NbyrZv1c98F1ZHmMdw.jpeg?imwidth=680\"){kind=spacer}