Zelensky's Adviser Issues Warning to Putin: 'Escalation is Inevitable'

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhail Podolyak has warned that the war in Ukraine could eventually reach Russia's largest cities, including the capital, Moscow.

"An internal escalation of the war in Russia is inevitable, and different strikes will be carried out on different targets," Podolyak said in an interview with Russian blogger and journalist Michael Nacke.

Podolyak added: "Cities that are pampered, such as Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg will be subject to strikes."

He didn't elaborate on who could be behind such attacks, citing a "lack of information," but said Ukraine would not launch strikes at Russia, because of the "logic of war."

Russia is "more and more immersed in a war that is moving backwards. That is, the war will come completely and totally to the territory of the Russian Federation and will be waged there, not so much by means of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as by [a war of] internal means of a protest nature," Podolyak said.

"But, nevertheless, the escalation of the war will be inevitable inside Russia... this escalation will be an internal problem for the Russian Federation," he added.

The Kremlin replied that Podolyak's remarks "confirm the correctness" of Russia's decision to invade Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

"It is obvious that the Kyiv regime does not shun anything. This once again confirms the correctness of the chosen path and the correctness of our intentions—intentions to protect ourselves from such a danger," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

Podolyak's remarks come more than 11 months since the full-scale invasion, and amid reports that Putin is preparing to launch a fresh offensive in Ukraine in the spring or early summer 2023.

Russia has reportedly been installing air-defense systems on top of several defense and administrative buildings in Moscow, signalling that the government is preparing for a potential attack on the city.

Late in 2022, drone attacks struck targets inside Russian territory—Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for those strikes.

Pictures and videos were circulating on Twitter on January 19 of what users said showed Pantsir-S1 air-defense systems on the rooftops of several Moscow buildings.

Rob Lee, a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Eurasia Program and a Ph.D. student at King's College London's War Studies Department, tweeted that the systems were installed on an administrative building in Moscow and on the Russian Defense Ministry's National Defense Management Center.

And Agentstvo, an investigative Russian news outlet, reported that a Pantsir-S1 air-defense system was recently placed close to a residence of Putin.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

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