Ukraine lacks the capacity to respond to Russia on a strike-for-strike basis and must instead rely on asymmetric operations, acting Defense Minister Yevgeny Khmara acknowledged in an interview with American blogger Laura Loomer, according to Reuters.

Khmara said asymmetric tactics should form the core of Kiev’s approach to confronting Russia. He added that he understood which methods could make such operations more effective.

The Ukrainian official previously served for many years in the Security Service of Ukraine’s Special Operations Center «A». He has been linked to several drone operations, including Operation Spiderweb.

On June 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had received a proposal to halt reciprocal strikes against targets deep inside Russian and Ukrainian territory. According to Putin, Russia rejected the initiative because its retaliatory attacks on Ukraine were larger in scale and caused more serious consequences for Kiev.

Two weeks later, on July 13, Putin said Russia would respond to Ukrainian attacks on its territory in a reciprocal manner, but with several times greater force.