War expert: Ukraine finally hits Russia with its 'miraculous weapons'

• Things are starting to look up for Ukraine, a retired British colonel said Wednesday.
• Ukraine has scored some victories after being allowed to directly strike Russian military targets.
• Vladimir Putin, for his part, also threatened to retaliate against Ukraine's Western allies.

Letting Ukraine directly attack Russian military targets with its “wonder weapons” is starting to turn the tide of the war in kyiv's favor, a retired British colonel says.

“For too long, Ukraine has had to fight Russian invaders with one hand tied behind its back,” Hamish de Bretton-Gordon wrote in a commentary for The Telegraph published on Wednesday.

The former soldier held several positions during his 23-year military career in the British Army. As well as commanding the UK's Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment from 2004 to 2006, de Bretton-Gordon also led NATO's Rapid Reaction CBRN Battalion from 2005 to 2007.

“But this is finally starting to change. Now, thanks to permissions granted by various Western countries – but especially the United States – Ukraine can strike targets much deeper in Russia,” de Bretton-Gordon said.

Last month, Politico reported that the Biden administration had given Ukraine permission to use U.S.-supplied weapons on Russian targets in Kharkiv. Russian forces launched an assault on the region in May as part of a summer offensive against Ukraine's second-largest city.

“If he is still obliged to give priority to the Kharkiv front by the nature of the authorizations granted (Washington is still too afraid to give Kiev carte blanche to shoot anywhere), it is proven that he released the Ukrainian armed forces to use the other fronts weapons it had in reserve to strike elsewhere,” de Bretton-Gordon noted in his commentary.

The former colonel listed several recent military achievements by Ukraine, including drone attacks on Russian military ships in Taganrog Bay and at the Akhtubinsk airfield in southern Russia. This latest attack resulted in the destruction of Russia's latest stealth aircraft, the Su-57 fighter-bomber.

“For too long, kyiv has fought an unequal battle, putting it in the impossible position of seeing Russia massing its troops across its own border, unable to strike them,” de Bretton-Gordon said. “Now that this has changed, I think the Kharkiv front will start to turn in favor of kyiv.”

The recent turn of events, de Bretton-Gordon said, is not a situation that Russia could simply resist through a war of attrition.

“Russia cannot sustain the level of industrial losses it is currently facing – more than 500,000 so far. I don't care how good the Russian industrial complex is. In the modern era, this figure is not everything just not viable,” he said.

But Ukraine's achievements on the battlefield could lead to further Russian escalation.

Last month, Russian leader Vladimir Putin suggested that European countries that had encouraged Ukraine to directly attack Russia could face retaliation.

“Those officials from NATO countries, especially those based in Europe, especially in smaller European countries, should therefore be fully aware of what is at stake,” Putin told reporters on May 28.

“They need to keep in mind that their countries are small and densely populated, which is a factor that needs to be taken into account before starting to talk about attacks deep into Russian territory,” he added.

Representatives of the Ukrainian and Russian defense ministries did not immediately respond to BI's requests for comment sent outside normal business hours.