From: Voice of America/Radio Liberty By Vazha Tavberidze
Sean Bell served as a combat pilot and air vice marshal in the Royal Air Force and held several other positions in the British Defense Ministry. He is now a military analyst for Sky News.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Georgian Service, Bell said Ukraine was “finding ways to fight differently” in its war against Russia, highlighting Kyiv’s recent incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, as well as drone strikes on Russian energy infrastructure and military targets.
RFE/RL: There does not seem to be a consensus among experts and analysts on Ukraine’s incursion into Russian territory on its border: calculated risk or reckless gamble? What side of the argument do you take?
Sean Bell: It’s been described by many people as a gamble. You gamble when you go to Las Vegas and you don’t know what the odds are, you have no influence on the outcome, you just gamble your money away. In military operations, this was a very well-planned military operation and it carried a lot of risks. There’s no doubt that President [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy and his team will have war-gamed this several times, looked at, planned for the worst, hoped for the best; it was intelligence-led. It was almost certainly not just Ukrainian intelligence but also potentially some of Ukraine’s allies helping to try to work out how best to achieve their objectives.
Voice of Ukraine 