Drone attacks on a Russian radar station may have crossed one of moscow's red lines for the potential use of nuclear weapons. This is according to Newsweek, reports UNN.
Details
Ukrainian drones reportedly attacked the 590th separate radio-technical center in the town of Kovylkino in the morning of Wednesday and on April 11. Kovylkino is located in the Republic of Mordovia, about 360 miles from the border with Ukraine.
The facility houses the 29B6 Container over-the-horizon radar station, which is part of Russia's reconnaissance and early warning network for aerospace attacks, including those involving ballistic missiles.
Sources say the results of Wednesday's attack are still being determined. Ukrainian media reports said a command post building was damaged in the April 11 attack, while Russian authorities said two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were shot down.
Newsweek contacted the Russian defense ministry and the Kremlin via email asking for comment.
If the Container radar system had been affected, the attacks could have met one of the "conditions determining the possibility of the Russian Federation using nuclear weapons," as stipulated in the 2020 presidential decree, the publication notes.
These include "receiving reliable information about the launch of ballistic missiles attacking the territory of the Russian Federation and (or) its allies," as well as "the use by the enemy of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction on the territories of the Russian Federation."
Other criteria include "the impact of the enemy on critical state or military facilities of the Russian Federation, the failure of which would disrupt the response of nuclear forces" and "aggression against the Russian Federation using conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is threatened".
Newsweek adds that the threat of nuclear escalation - be it nuclear weapons or a disaster at one of the many civilian nuclear power plants in the war zone - has loomed over Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine since it began in February 2022.