The Army receives modern artillery, helicopters, missiles and possibly even planes to fight in a more open field than that of the cities
The battle is intensifying in Ukraine, where this Thursday marks 57 days since the invasion began on February 24. The kyiv Army has faced the Kremlin troops with everything it had – and with the help received from the West, since it was outgunned and outmanned by Russia – for almost two months, but the duration of the war makes dent and supplies start to run low. As if that were not enough, Moscow’s latest strategy is to undertake a major offensive in Donbas -where part of the territory is pro-Russian-, for which Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces will need new war equipment suitable for open field clashes. For this reason, the United States and countries of the European Union are providing heavy weapons to the resistance.
Why this change of arsenal? Because the war scenario has changed drastically. While in recent weeks on the outskirts of kyiv or in Mariupol and other areas in the east, both sides have fought in residential and industrial locations, which provide more possibilities to resist or hide, and with buildings in between where the effectiveness of snipers or ambushes with drones, from now on a significant part of the combats are planned in open areas where the effectiveness of aircraft and tanks increases.
“This is no joke,” warns Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, former commander of the US Army in Europe. “What we are talking about is a bloody conventional war of military maneuvers, where the Russian forces will be able to torpedo the fixed positions of the Ukrainians in a much more open terrain,” says the expert in his analysis of the new offensive.
Germany promises “long-term” military support for the next three months and even for the next three years
Washington last week approved an $800 million (€736 million) package of offensive material that includes 155-millimeter howitzers, a major upgrade to long-range artillery to match Russian systems, 40,000 shells and 11 Mi-5 helicopters. 17 of Soviet design. They fit into the Ukrainian arsenal, so they will not require specific training for their use. When asked if fighter planes have been sent, the White House avoids answering, but it does believe that the Ukrainian air force fleet has increased.
The EU has also approved a further €500 million to rearm Zelensky’s Army. In addition to personal protective equipment, first aid kits and fuel, these funds will subsidize the shipment of weapons by member states, which are currently discussing how to get heavy military arsenal to kyiv.
The Slovak government has sent the S-300 long-range anti-aircraft missile system, while Norway has promised 100 projectiles. Finland has also announced a new weapons package. Although it has not provided details in this regard, its Ministry of Defense stressed that it has taken into account “both the needs of Ukraine and the situation of the resources of the defense forces.”
Tanks are not “taboo”
Germany, for its part, promised this Wednesday military support “in the medium and long term”; a way to ignore the serious crisis opened in the German Executive by the resistance of its chancellor, Olaf Scholz, to supply tanks and other heavy weapons. However, the Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, estimated the cost of covering kyiv at one billion, which would include more complex and effective weapons, with training included.
The head of German diplomacy indicated that her country is willing to supply the former Soviet republic for at least three years and warned that sending armored vehicles “is not a taboo”, although “in the short term we have nothing that we can really deliver quickly”.
With new aid on the way, kyiv is rearming for a powerful counterattack in an area in conflict since 2014, when the crisis in Donbas erupted. For eight long years the confrontations have been constant and also the two armies have exhausted numerous military resources in that time. As a sign of the harshness of the confrontation, before the Russian invasion the war in Donbas had already claimed between 14,000 and 15,000 lives.
Moscow successfully tests the launch of a missile capable of hitting targets at 18,000 kilometers
“It will give those who threaten our country with unrestrained and aggressive rhetoric a second thought.” These were the words with which Vladimir Putin built his particular ‘notice to navigators’ this Wednesday after confirming the test with a ballistic missile that crossed, until impact, more than 5,000 kilometers over Russian territory, but could reach 18,000. The launch took place at 3:12 p.m. (local time) from a cosmodrome in the Arcángel region, in the northwest of the country.
And it does not catch the West by surprise, despite the climate of maximum tension that exists due to the conflict in Ukraine. In fact, the United States said that it had been informed of the trial and that these operations are not new. This is not the first time that the Russian Army has tested long-range missiles. In fact, the ‘Sarmat’ or ‘Satan’, as this rocket is called, is part of a series of “invisible” weapons that were presented in 2018 by Putin himself. Among them, the hypersonic ‘Kinjal’ and ‘Avangard’.
In March, Moscow confirmed that it had used the ‘Kinjal’ for the first time against Ukrainian targets. The ‘Sarmat’, which weighs more than two hundred tons, would achieve better results than its predecessor, the ‘Voevoda’ missile, which was already capable of reaching impact zones located 11,000 kilometers away.
The Kremlin has repeatedly boasted of its unparalleled range, to the point that Vladimir Putin himself went so far as to highlight its ability to “target targets across the North and South Poles.” He has also stressed that all the components are nationally produced.
Once the testing program is complete, this next-generation weapon will be integrated into the Strategic Missile Forces. The Army would already have a regiment in the process of training for the potential use of this intercontinental missile in the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk.
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