The Ukrainian military destroyed dozens of Russian radar systems last month. What this means for the front.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces managed to stabilize the front in recent days, but not only. Ukrainians can repeatedly needle the Russians.
What a strike: The most recent pinpricks were directed against Russia’s “eyes”: radar systems and related anti-aircraft defense systems. “NZZ” first reported about it.
A Russian radar complex was also destroyed, according to journalist Mark Grudov from US-funded Radio Free Europe. In his post, you can see traces of a large fire where expensive and difficult-to-replace radar used to be.
Purpose of Ukraine
According to NZZ, there have been at least a dozen significant attacks on Russian radar systems since April 20, half of them within the past week. Although not all attacks were successful, overall Russia suffered heavy losses.
Mauro Gili is an expert in military technology and international security at the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich. He confirms that Ukrainian attacks on Russian radar systems have now escalated. On the one hand, there are large, fixed radar systems, and on the other hand, there are smaller, more mobile long-range radars, which are often installed in the modern Russian S-400 air defense system.
Purana:
FILE PHOTO: Firefighters battle a fire after reports of an explosion at a fuel depot in Voronezh, Russia, about 460 kilometers (285 miles) south of Moscow, Saturday, June 24, 2023.
Archive image/Andrey Arksipov via AP
According to unofficial reports, a Ukrainian drone attack a week ago damaged the radar in the Russian early warning system against incoming nuclear missiles. Photos of the damage to the facility near the southern Russian city of Armavir appeared on Russian and Ukrainian channels, the US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) later wrote in its report. Situation report. Former Russian ex-NATO ambassador Dmitry Rogozin spoke from Moscow’s side. In X, he warned that such attacks would bring the world closer to the brink of nuclear war.
A Ukrainian official familiar with the matter told Ansa news agency last week that Russia is using radars to monitor Ukrainian military activity, particularly Kiev’s aerial use of drones and missiles. The official confirmed that GUR, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, was responsible for the attack.
As Pavel Bodvik, a nuclear weapons expert at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research, recently explained to the German “Spiegel”, the station in Armavir is of little importance to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Using radar to detect Ukrainian drones or aircraft is difficult. The radar has limited use for ballistic missile reconnaissance in parts of southern Ukraine.
According to the military expert, the large radar systems have several goals: “for example, to show that Russia will not attack with nuclear weapons, to move Russia from the front of its air defense systems and to show Russia its vulnerability.”
When smaller systems are shot down, Russian air defenses must be weakened; And the goal is to blind them to increase the effectiveness of attacks. This, according to Gilley, “is very impactful on the front end”.
Is the F-16 ready for delivery?
But is it possible that the Ukrainians are preparing for the immediate delivery of fighter jets to the West with attacks on Russian radar systems? Ultimately, a total of 95 F-16 fighter jets were promised to Ukraine. First come first come soon.
As SRF Ukraine Correspondent Judith Huber says, the Ukrainian media is right. One goal of the strikes against Russian radar systems is to reduce the ability of Russian troops to detect and shoot down the F-16 fighter jets that Ukrainians eagerly await. That is why, according to an article by the Kyiv Post, the most important targets of Ukrainians are currently large Russian air defense systems and at the same time the technicians who operate them.
More attacks on radar systems?
According to “NZZ” reports, all attacks on Russian radar systems in the occupied territories were carried out by Western weapons, Atacms missiles equipped with cluster munitions or British-French Storm-Shadow cruise missiles.
Ukraine has recently been allowed to use US attack weapons on Russian territory – so far only in the Kharkiv region – and German self-propelled howitzers 2000 and Mars II rocket missiles against anti-aircraft and radar systems. It remains to be seen in the coming weeks whether the Ukrainian backlash will continue or expand after the decisions from Washington and Berlin.
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