Russia attacks Ukraine with hypersonic missile after tank announcement

Russia launched a 55-missile attack on targets in Ukraine on Thursday, a day after the United States and Germany escalated Western involvement in the war by announcing the deployment of tanks to Kiev to combat Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

According to General Valeri Zalujni, commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, several missiles were used, including the hypersonic model Kinjal, launched from MiG-31K interceptors. He stated that 47 of the slower projectiles, such as Kalibr cruise models, were shot down, which seems optimistic in view of the damage reported in various parts of the country.

Odessa, Ukraine’s biggest port, was left without power and running water. There was at least one dead in Kiev and in Vinnitsia, in the west of the country, six large explosions were recorded. It is not clear where the Kinjal, one of the “invincible weapons” revealed by Putin in 2018 and which has already been used in the conflict, was used.

“Russians’ objective remains unchanged: psychological pressure on Ukrainians and destruction of critical infrastructure. But we cannot be broken,” the general wrote on Twitter. Meanwhile, Putin’s forces have been making slow advances in the south and east of the country.

In Moscow, the Kremlin spokesman again criticized the West and its promise to deliver heavy weapons. “All that the covenant [ocidental] is doing is seen as direct involvement in the conflict. We see it growing,” said Dmitri Peskov in his daily conversation with reporters. “These countries have become participants in the conflict,” said the powerful Nikolai Patruchev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council.

After weeks of discussion, the fourth (26) brought a tactical novelty to the war: Germany said it will send 14 Leopard-2A6 tanks and allow the re-export of the model, which it manufactures, by other countries to Kiev. With that, Poland received the green light to also send 14 Leopard-2s, of the older A4 version.

Somewhat surprisingly, given past resistance, the US has promised to supply 31 M1 Abrams tanks, without specifying whether it is the older A1 model or the newer A2 – arguably the most powerful tank in the world.

The UK, for its part, had already said it would send 14 Challenger-2 tanks to help President Volodymyr Zelensky’s war effort. These first 59 tanks do nothing to change the military balance of the war, but they do signal a change in posture that could lead to both.

Ukraine wanted 300 tanks, and experts say at least 100 so that raids against Russian-defended lines in Kherson (south) and Donetsk (east) have any chance of success. Other Leopard-2 operating countries, such as Spain, Finland and Norway, have already expressed their support for the shipment. But even this is not a guarantee.

“An armored group of 30 to 50 Abrams tanks is unlikely to affect the situation. If it’s 200 or 300, used correctly, it could be significant,” he told Sheet the director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, one of the main Russian military think tanks, Ruslan Pukhov.

He believes the West will limit its shipments to keep Russia under pressure, wasting resources but not aiming for “a decisive Ukrainian victory, which is unlikely anyway”. Pukhov says Moscow will have problems facing newer versions of the Abrams and even the Leopard-2 for using older Soviet ammunition.

According to Pukhov, there is also a shortage of modern anti-tank missiles, similar to the American Javelins that Ukraine skillfully operated at the beginning of the war. Russia has Kornet, but in short supply, and relies on less effective Soviet weapons.

For Rob Lee, an American from King’s College (London) who became a reference in the analysis of the war, Western tanks “are good news, but not a silver bullet”.

“Ukraine’s objective is to retake all of its Russian-occupied territories. Breaking through well-prepared defensive lines and exploiting these successes is difficult without a significant combined arms advantage, and Ukraine is unlikely to have air superiority,” he wrote on Twitter.

He agrees that Western models have advantages in direct competition with Russians, but there is the numerical factor. Moscow has lost the equivalent of half of its active fleet of 3,000 tanks, but has fielded plenty of reserves — and they numbered 10,000 tanks before the invasion in February last year.

Lee points out other issues. “Incorporating three different types of tanks will be a logistical headache, but it will also give Ukrainians more options to replace losses,” he said. “The new tanks will increase Kiev’s chances of success, but not guarantee them.”

He sees more tactical importance in the promised lighter tanks, like the American Bradley and Stryker and the German Marder. They would be better than the Ukrainian tanks in action today — Kiev has lost half of its nearly 1,000 tanks of the type so far, having received a reinforcement of 230 from Poland after the conflict.

In addition to doubts about the quantities of tanks, there is the speed of their delivery. Training to operate Leopard-2 and Challenger-2 lasts from three to six weeks, and perhaps even more for the Abrams —which have the additional problem of using a turbine engine, which consumes horrors, forcing a more oiled logistics of supplying special fuel.

On Thursday, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said during a military exercise that the first wave of his Leopard-2s would be ready “at the end of March, beginning of April”. So it remains to be seen what Putin will do by then.