The Russo-Ukrainian war is getting nastier as both sides face growing challenges. That is perhaps depressingly inevitable, not least given Russia’s brutal tactics. Yet as news breaks of a since-cancelled plan to disrupt Russian civilian air traffic, Kyiv needs to maintain the clarity of its position, and its European backers need to be careful they don’t get sucked into a spiral of escalation, or even encourage it.
The plan, “Operation M&Ms”, was a pet project of former Ukrainian defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov. It entailed swarms of AI-guided drones disrupting Moscow’s airports, in the hope that this would exasperate Russia’s elite into pressuring Vladimir Putin to end the war.
Although there has been no official denial, a staffer in the Presidential Administration rejected the story. However, the journalist who reported it, Simon Shuster, is extremely well connected in Kyiv, and a British Ministry of Defence source, asked whether the operation was real, uncomfortably admitted that “it doesn’t sound unlike some discussions which were held earlier this year”.
It seems unlikely Russia’s cowed elite would risk arousing Putin’s anger because of this inconvenience (there are, after all, other airports a limo’s ride from the capital), let alone that he would change plans because a collection of fat cats were whining that it was harder for them to fly to Dubai.
