Press
Not a “miracle weapon”, but effective: Russia's new cruise missile makes a difference in the war – Ukraine lets it go as it still lacks the resources.
Avdiivka – Dimitri Medvedev is apparently spitting poison and bile again. She sees the reason for the former Russian president's bad mood Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) in that the USA has now waved through the aid package worth more than 60 billion dollars. According to Ukrainian military officials, the SZ quoted, the effect of the promised weapons “would be felt in four or six weeks.” Vladimir Putin's troops therefore have at most a month left to make an offensive appearance in the Ukraine war. Russia's new Kh-69 cruise missile is intended to force a decision – it is said to have the ability to become a miracle weapon, but the truth seems to be: Ukraine has simply run out of options for defense.
This is primarily why Russia was recently able to score effective hits against the Trypillia coal-fired power plant – with a newly deployed cruise missile that is said to be visually similar to the Western Storm Shadow and Scalp missiles Kyiv Post currently reported. Both Ukrainian and Russian sources have confirmed that Russia used a new cruise missile in the April 11 attacks on the Trypillya power plant, about 40 kilometers from the capital Kiev. Many analysts consider the Kh-69 to be the current biggest threat to Ukraine's air defense.
“Eleven rockets were fired at the Trypillya station, on which the Kiev region's electricity supply depends. We managed to intercept the first seven, but the remaining four hit Trypillia. Why? Because we ran out of rockets. We have exhausted all the missiles defending Trypillia.”
“As practice has shown, the use of this missile by the Russians can be more dangerous in terms of its consequences for the Ukrainians than the use of the Kh-47M2 Kinschal missile,” the magazine claims Defense Express, as the Frankfurter Rundschau has reported. Russia's new threat has two characteristics ahead of previous weapons: its range and low altitude. “The missile’s low altitude, combined with the low radar visibility of the wave-absorbing material that composes its body, makes it difficult to detect, intercept and destroy,” writes the Kyiv Post.
The Kh-69 cruise missile is said to be able to cover a distance of 400 kilometers and at an altitude of around 20 meters; This not only expands its radius, but also makes it more difficult for anti-aircraft defenses to detect the object. Defense Express writes that these cruise missiles can be considered a “repackaging” of the Kh-59MK2, albeit with some structural differences: the missile now has a box-shaped fuselage with a trapezoidal cross-section, tailored to fit into the Su-57's weapons bay.
Russia continues to rely on terror against infrastructure
Apparently Russia is continuing to rely more heavily on a war of attrition against Ukraine and its infrastructure – reporter Henner Hebestreit reports for this ZDF “of around 100 drones and missiles fired at infrastructure targets in Ukraine in recent weeks. A large part was intercepted by Ukrainian air defense. The people in the affected areas are particularly concerned about the precision and therefore the enormous destructive power of the projectiles.” The defenders are apparently in danger of running out of steam – the danger of the new Russian Kh-69 cruise missile may result solely from the fact that the Ukrainian air defense is on floor lies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj also argued in this direction in a recent interview with the US broadcaster PBS in his News Hour: “You have to be stronger than the enemy to defeat him. Today the artillery ammunition ratio is 1 to 10. Can we survive like this? No. In any case, with statistics like these, they will push us back any day. If we want to defend what is under our control, then we should come to proportional numbers – 10 to 10,” Zelensky said, according to a summary of the Kyiv Post.
Ukraine will soon be without electricity – a third of the energy systems may be destroyed
The Southgerman newspaper expects a renewed advance of Russian troops “especially around the small town of Avdiivka and near the strategically important hilly area of Chasiv Yar.” According to their information, around two thirds of the country's energy infrastructure has now been destroyed. The sky over Ukraine seems to be open like a barn door. The reason seems extremely simple, as Zelensky admitted on American television: “Eleven rockets were fired at the Trypillya station, on which the electricity supply in the Kiev region depends. We managed to intercept the first seven, but the remaining four hit Trypillia. Why? Because we ran out of rockets. We have exhausted all the missiles defending Trypillia.”
However, the Ukrainian defenders still exude confidence: the spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Major Ilya Yevlash, said opposite Newsweek, the Kh-69 is merely an improved version of the Kh-59 cruise missile, which Moscow has repeatedly used to attack Ukrainian infrastructure. Jevlasch, however, doubts Russia's ability to produce these new missiles on a large scale because they would have to procure special components such as chips and semiconductors and, moreover, would hardly be able to produce the new missiles faster than other weapons. “A missile examined in February 2024 had manufacturing information from the end of 2023, indicating the beginning stage of the Kh-69 production cycle,” writes, for example The New Voice of Ukraine.
The Patriot – Putin’s thorn in the side and Zelensky’s straw of hope
In addition, the Patriot missiles seem to master their task brilliantly: Air Force spokesman Jewlasch says in the New Voice of Ukraine in any case combative against the supposedly great threat posed by the Kh-69: “The Patriot air defense system will most likely also be able to counter it, as it has already proven its strength against much more sophisticated missiles: against missiles such as the hypersonic Zirkon and Kinschal missiles “.
NATO has also recently decided to further intensify its aid, as was recently announced at the meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council – Germany had already promised another Patriot system. However, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also made it clear that there was obviously no certainty about the extent to which Ukraine could still expect help from NATO. “I also made it clear that there is of course a risk that NATO guidelines will not be adhered to if I ask the allies to delve deeper into their stockpiles,” Stoltenberg said in the subsequent press conference.
Green light in the USA: Weapons aid has apparently been ready for delivery a long time ago
According to the South German newspaper With the release of US weapons aid, only half the journey has been taken – according to her, the race against time is still open for Ukraine: “Apparently, reserves were mobilized from Western European stocks of the USA, mainly from depots in Germany. According to indications from the Pentagon, the material has already been prepared for shipment or has already been collected at the Polish border for further transport.
However, the use of Kh-69 cruise missiles is seen not only as Russia's wild card in the race against time, but also as the next step in the development of more effective weapons, like the British one telegraph assumes when he writes: “The US-based Institute for the Study of War said the appearance of the Kh-69 missile in Ukraine was a sign of the Kremlin's determination to win its war in Ukraine by adjusting its weapons production.
As recently as August, Putin confidant Dmitri Medvedev of Ukraine was on the social media channel Telegram predicts that they want to turn their leadership into ashes: To ensure that Russia is not divided into “pieces”, the “hostile political regime” in Ukraine must be destroyed as quickly as possible. Medvedev and others had repeatedly threatened the world with a nuclear strike. (KaHin)
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