Russian Military Expert Concerned About Ukraine's New Weapons From West

A Russian military expert admitted that new Western weapons being supplied to Ukraine could make Russia's chances of winning the war difficult.

Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the online military publication National Defense, made the comments during an appearance on Russia-1, a Kremlin-run station. Journalist and Russian propaganda expert Julia Davis captured a clip from the news segment featuring Korotchenko and posted it Wednesday on Twitter.

Korotchenko said that regions in Ukraine that Russia has claimed it now controls—Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Odesa and Mykolaiv—are now part of Russia and that attacks there should be considered attacks on Russia itself. He said his country's military should retaliate for Ukrainian strikes in these areas by taking out bridges and railways in western parts of Ukraine, where Western weapons arrive from Poland, as well as in the south, where weapons are transferred from Romania.

"The scale of additional Western arms deliveries will seriously complicate our success of conducting our special military operation," Korotchenko said, according to translated subtitles on Davis' post.

Ukraine has benefited from Western weapons ever since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion in late February. In recent weeks, President Volodymyr Zelensky's military has seen an increase in heavy armaments provided by NATO countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Poland.

The U.S.-made M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, has been especially effective, according to reports. Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region, told Newsweek recently that Russian troops are now in "panic mode" after the long-range weapons destroyed multiple Russian targets and bolstered Ukraine's ability to defend itself.

"As the whole world has seen over the past week or so, we have been able to inflict massive damage to their missile defense systems and ammunition storage facilities deep behind the enemy lines," Haidai said.

This, he added, "was largely down to the variety of weapons we have recently received from the West. And when we have sufficient amounts of such weaponry, we will be able to carry out further counterattacks."

Davis noted in her Twitter post that Korotchenko not only wanted to prevent new Western-supplied weapons from coming into Ukraine. He also called for the destruction of Ukrainian public administration and infrastructure.

"Let's not be too shy to do it. These are legitimate military targets," Korotchenko said. "The entire system of the public administration and military administration of Ukraine—all of its key objects are lawful, legitimate targets of the Russian army for the duration of this special military operation."

The Russian military journalist also warned about people traveling to Ukraine from other nations.

"We see the endless flow of Western visitors, who come to Kyiv without any fear and take part in propagandist performances," he said. "They should be afraid to come to Kyiv, and, physically, they should lose the ability to arrive to Kyiv by air or via the railways."