Armed Forces critically lack control of sky to stop Russians, - Times
The military is so short of anti-aircraft weapons that it could lose control of its skies to Russia, according to classified Pentagon documents seen by the media.
The Times writes about it, Censor.NET reports.
Journalists spoke with the Ukrainian military, who noted that Russia has the technology to better protect against the Stinger air defense system. According to the military, the Armed Forces launch two missiles and hope that the second will hit.
"We also used anti-tank missiles against them and that stopped them from sending helicopters far into our territory because they were afraid they would get hit.
But now that the Russians know we're running out of ammunition, they're getting bolder. Every day, more and more helicopters and planes are arriving, and they are beginning to understand that we cannot stop them," the publication quotes the Ukrainian military.
It is noted that the Pentagon's top-secret documents revealed weak points in the Ukrainian army and sounded an alarm bell.
They showed, among other things, that Ukraine is so short of anti-aircraft weapons that it could lose control of its skies to Russia as early as May - just as it prepares for a ground offensive to retake lost territories.
According to the leaked documents, Russia has improved its FAB-500 bomb, giving it wings and a GPS system that allows it to be dropped from a military aircraft and fly autonomously to the intended target, while the aircraft never enters enemy airspace or comes under fire .
Such a bomb, dropped from an Su-34, was the cause of an accidental attack on the Russian city of Belgorod, as a result of which at least three people were injured. Analysts attribute the increase in the number of such incidents to a sharp increase in the number of Russian military flights.
Ukrainian military officials are now considering how to provide air cover for the troops in the conditions of an offensive operation. The Allies have still not responded to their requests for F-16s.
At a drone control base in an abandoned building a few miles from the Russian trenches, soldiers demonstrated to the paper how their ammunition supplies were dwindling. A large monitor showed a broadcast from a Ukrainian drone hovering near the Russian positions, showing several men moving forward. "If there are less than ten, it's a waste of a mortar, we need them to hit their artillery," said one of the fighters.
The $6,000 drone, equipped with night vision cameras, is one of the most expensive used by the unit. Other commercial models cost about $3,000, many of them were purchased through crowdfunding, the journalists write.
However, the Russians are improving their UAV jamming capabilities, using systems that the military believes have recently arrived from China. The most popular drone used by the Ukrainians is a commercial Chinese model - and Russia's greater success in jamming them has caused Ukrainians to speculate that Beijing is helping them in this.
According to the media, the fear is that Russia's progress in jamming drones will lead to the fact that thousands of Ukrainian UAVs will be disabled, and the prospect of finding a replacement for them will be slim. While drones have been recognized as one of Ukraine's most effective and cheapest assets since the beginning of the conflict, they have now become even more important as ammunition is running low and precision targeting is critically needed to maintain their supplies.
