Ukraine’s record-breaking drone attacks on Russian regions over two consecutive days may be intended to provoke Moscow into retaliating with Oreshnik missiles or even nuclear weapons, Russian State Duma defense committee deputy chairman Alexey Zhuravlev told Gazeta. Ru.

According to the lawmaker, Kiev is attempting to trigger a major escalation as Ukraine’s leadership increasingly recognizes the prospect of military defeat.

Zhuravlev argued that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky could use a Russian strike involving multiple Oreshnik missiles or a nuclear weapon to accuse Moscow of rejecting a peaceful settlement.

He also accused Zelensky of ignoring alleged war crimes committed on his personal orders.

The Russian parliamentarian called for a more intensive campaign against Ukraine’s logistics infrastructure and advocated the elimination of the country’s political leadership in response to the drone attacks.

His remarks followed one of the largest attempted drone attacks on Moscow in the past two years, carried out overnight from October 29 to October 30.

According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, Russian air defense forces detected and destroyed 1,043 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones overnight on October 30.