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Ukraine is under unprecedented pressure. Since the full-scale Russian invasion began in February 2022, it has not faced such massive long-range attacks as it did at the turn of the year and earlier this year. And it’s not just about their numbers, the tactics of the attackers have also changed.
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The Russians began to attack differently. Ukraine’s defense is under pressure and resisting collapse. | Video: Reuters
At the beginning of January, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia had sent or fired 500 cruise missiles and drones against Ukraine in just five days. At least 32 people died in the capital Kiev afterward, 30 of them in the attack on December 29, when Russia launched one of the largest airstrikes since the aggression began.
Other people died in Kharkiv in the northeast of the country, in Zaporozhye in the south, in Odessa on the southern coast and even in Lviv in the west. The January 2 attack in Kiev lasted six hours. The Russians have unleashed a wave of drones on the capital. Attacks followed using various types of weapons to overcome and breach the city’s defenses.
These two massive air raids at the turn of the year were followed by a third and fourth on January 7th and 8th. Reports of explosions came from Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhia, Khmelnytskyi and Kryvyi Rih. According to Ukrainians, the invading army attacked commercial, residential or industrial buildings. The occupiers used, among other things, Ch-101, Ch-555 and Ch-55 rockets.
Russia has never stopped attacking Ukraine from the air, but this latest series of attacks marks a deadly escalation. They use different missiles – hypersonic, cruise and ballistic missiles. They could change direction over Ukraine, which would cause further headaches for Ukrainian air defense, wrote the British BBC.
“The Russians are always trying to find a better way to break through our air defenses and make their own attack more effective,” Oleksandr Musienko of the Center for Military Research of Ukraine told the BBC.
The way Russia prepares for these attacks is also changing. Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency says it has found and disabled “two robotic cameras” that were allegedly hacked by Russia to spy on Kiev’s defenses and survey targets.
According to the British Ministry of Defense, Russia’s goals have also changed. “The recent attacks are likely to have primarily targeted Ukraine’s defense industry,” the ministry said. This is what the Russians officially claim. This is in contrast to the attacks last winter and early December 2023, which primarily targeted energy infrastructure.
“These new operations indicate at least a temporary change in the approach to long-range attacks. “The Russians almost certainly recognize the growing importance of defense industrial capabilities as they prepare for a long war,” the British ministry noted, according to Business Insider.
However, it is unclear how long an attacker can continue to carry out these large-scale attacks. Ukrainian media say that the December 29 attack alone cost $1.273 billion, according to Forbes magazine, and the January 2 attack cost another $620 million.
Ukraine was already concerned before the winter that Russia was stockpiling weapons for large-scale attacks. In an analysis published in French daily Le Monde, Ukrainian officials were quoted as saying that Russia still has around 1,000 ballistic or cruise missiles in stock and is capable of producing around 100 more per month, such as Kalibrs and CH- 101.
Kiev and Kharkiv faced further murderous attacks. The Russians fired Kinžál hypersonic missiles at them. (02/01/2023)
Kiev and Kharkiv faced further murderous attacks. The Russians fired Kinžál hypersonic missiles at them. | Video: Reuters, Aktuálně.cz/X/Igor Sushko
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