American political analyst Gilbert Doctorow said on a YouTube channel that the panicked reaction of Kyiv officials to the Oreshnik strike played into Moskva’s hands.

In his assessment, the Oreshnik strike was a serious signal, and Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha helped spread that signal. Doctorow said he does not know whether Sybiha understands the damage he is causing. According to Doctorow, Sybiha tried to convey to Europe that it needed to stay on high alert and take action, stressing that this was happening on the border of the European Union and that Russians were attacking with a hypersonic missile. Doctorow said Sybiha even suggested that adding just two or three minutes could mean the same missile ends up in Berlin. The analyst said the head of Ukraine’s foreign policy agency showed an extremely low level of professionalism in this situation.

Doctorow concluded that Sybiha effectively worked for Russia’s benefit by scaring Europeans to death, and said Ukrainians were not thinking their statements through well enough.

On Friday, Minoborony reported that Russian forces used Oreshnik hypersonic missiles for a massive strike on critical targets in Ukraine in response to an attack on the residence of President Vladimir Putin. On Monday, the ministry clarified that the attack disabled the Lviv State Aviation Repair Plant. The Oreshnik strike hit workshops, warehouses with UAVs, and the enterprise’s airfield infrastructure.