Russian Federation is conducting new air campaign aimed at weakening Ukraine’s ability to carry out counteroffensive operations, - ISW
The increasingly regular series of Russian drone and missile strikes are believed to be part of a new Russian air campaign aimed at weakening Ukraine’s ability to conduct counteroffensive operations in the near term.
As reported by Censor.NET with reference to UP, this is stated in the report of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The institute calculated that starting from April 19, Russian troops carried out at least 10 series of strikes throughout the territory of Ukraine, especially in the rear areas.
"In these latest series of strikes, Russian forces used significantly fewer precision missiles compared to their failed campaign against Ukrainian critical infrastructure from the fall of 2022 to the winter of 2023," the experts said.
According to ISW's preliminary assessment, the Russian military likely used up a significant portion of its precision-guided missiles during the previous air campaign and is therefore using far fewer of these missiles in the latest campaign to conserve limited supplies. Instead, the analysts emphasized, the Russian forces bet on the launch of a large number of "Shahed" to overcome Ukrainian air defense, although Ukrainian forces were more effective in destroying Russian high-precision systems than during the previous Russian air campaign.
"The new Russian air campaign appears to be focused on Kyiv and suspected Ukrainian military-industrial and logistics facilities deep in the rear. The more limited air campaign has so far been more regular than Russia's previous broader campaign against critical infrastructure," the analysts said in a report.
ISW has previously assessed that Russian forces may be trying to conduct near-daily series of strikes to show that they are successfully deterring potential future Ukrainian counteroffensive operations.
"The intended goals and limited nature of this campaign indicate that Russian forces are directly concerned about the current Ukrainian capabilities to launch counteroffensive operations, although the reduction in the effectiveness of these strikes, most likely, does not significantly limit Ukrainian capabilities in general," the institute believes.
