While Kyiv's leadership mulls how to best embrace the opportunity, the majority of Ukrainians are much less upbeat.
Ukraine's Kyiv — According to the senior military expert in Ukraine, Kyiv must make a "strategic, principal decision" on how to capitalise on the unrest developing in Russia.
According to Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, one of these actions may be a directive to invade western Russia in order to get around significant defence structures on the 1,000 km (620 mi)-long front line in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The former deputy commander of the Ukrainian military's general staff told Al Jazeera: "Those who make unconventional decisions and carry them out will succeed." He also said it was time to hit Russian soldiers behind the back.
Just a day ago, such a strategy seemed like a "fairy tale," but the chaos and terror in Russia as the private military contractor Wagner's forces advance on Moscow may provide Kyiv the perfect chance to strike the least expected blow, he added.
However, Ukraine's Western allies will unavoidably intervene to discourage Kyiv from making such choices in order to prevent Moscow from using nuclear weapons, Romanenko noted.
Naturally, he said, "our allies will intercede, try to influence it in some way, in the 'let's-not-let-something-bad-happen' way, to avoid an escalation and the use of WMDs."
The way has already been paved to reach western Russia.
Three incursions into western Russian areas have been made by the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC), an organisation of fugitive Russian ultra-nationalists fighting for Ukraine.
They have the support of former Russian prisoners of war who are now fighting for Ukraine, as well as of volunteers from Belarus and Poland, two nearby countries.
They entered the Belgorod area of western Russia on June 1 in order to attack the settlement of Novaya Tavolzhanka and the 40,000-person metropolis of Shebekino.
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