According to Andrei Kolesnik, a member of the State Duma defense committee, Ukraine has long deserved a strike with the Oreshnik missile system. He argued that the Kiev regime must answer for what he described as its crimes.

Kolesnik said any decision on the use of specific weapons rests with Russia’s military leadership. He also pointed to what he listed as hostile actions by Ukraine, including strikes on Novorossiysk, the sinking of the Russian grain-carrying vessel Volgo-Balt 138 in the Azov Sea, and Ukrainian drone flights through the Baltics. In his view, such actions do not go unanswered.

He also warned the Baltic states that they should be on alert for allowing Ukrainian drones to pass through their territory. Kolesnik said he would not rule out the possibility that other drones could also be launched under that cover.

More broadly, he argued that Russia’s opponents have little reason for optimism. In his view, European countries will soon come to understand this as well, because Vladimir Zelensky is gradually drawing them into what Kolesnik described as a widening vortex of war, one he said would be extremely difficult to escape.