Ukraine’s dramatic drone attack on Russian military airbases over the weekend has significantly heightened the risk of escalation to “unacceptable” levels, according to US envoy Keith Kellogg.
Kellogg, who serves as President Donald Trump’s envoy for Ukraine and Russia, told Fox News on Tuesday that “the risk levels are going way up.”
He emphasised that targeting an opponent’s “national survival system,” which includes their nuclear triad (land, air, and sea nuclear strike capabilities), introduces unpredictable consequences.
“When you attack an opponent’s part of their national survival system… that means your risk level goes up because you don’t know what the other side is going to do,” Kellogg stated.
On Sunday, Ukraine claimed to have destroyed several Russian nuclear-capable bombers worth billions of dollars in a massive drone assault.
Kellogg noted that beyond the physical damage, the “psychological impact” of such an attack is profound, demonstrating that Ukraine “is not lying down on this.”
He reiterated his concern that the attack has pushed risk levels to what he considers “unacceptable” heights.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Moscow has frequently leveraged its nuclear capabilities to deter military intervention from Kyiv’s allies.
This is not the first time Ukraine has challenged Russia’s strategic nuclear deterrence; in 2024, it struck an advanced radar system designed to detect incoming ballistic missiles, and Russia itself fired an unarmed medium-range Oreshnik missile at Ukraine in November, which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
