2023-09-24 07:47:40
by Andrea Nicastro
The new Atacms promised by the USA will make in-depth operations easier. Moscow says it destroyed a Leopard tank “with a totally German crew”
The Ukrainian secret services are convinced they have made a big coup with the bombing on Friday over Sevastopol. They hit the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet with at least two missiles just as a meeting between senior officers was underway. The Ukrainian bombs went beyond the anti-aircraft and hit the building.
If what Kiev says is true, at least 25 Russian soldiers were injured or killed, not by chance, but because the 007s had been tipped off when the meeting of enemy officers would begin. The head of Ukrainian intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, claims that among the victims are General Alexander Romanchuk, head of the south-eastern front, and General Oleg Tsekov, commander of the Coast Guard of the Northern Fleet. The first would be in serious condition, the second in a coma. There are also rumors about the death of Admiral Viktor Sokolov at the head of the Black Sea Fleet.
All news about the war in Ukraine live
Yesterday Crimea occupied by Moscow fell once again Ukrainian bombing. Kiev does not want to miss the moment. It seems that Russian air defenses on the peninsula are in difficulty and are unable to intercept the bombs launched by Ukraine. Yesterday, other Russian artillery pieces and, perhaps, some radar elements integrated into the anti-aircraft response systems were put out of action.
When Moscow had to withdraw from the city of Kherson in November 2022, it then allowed Ukrainian forces to approach the Dnipro River. From there the Sevastopol naval base is between 180 and 220 kilometers away, well within the range of French and British missiles with anti-radar electronics that Ukraine has at its disposal. The collapse of the Nova Kakovkha dam in June this year prevented precision hammering from starting for a few months. The soggy ground made it difficult for the launcher to escape, and the risk that the Russians could locate and destroy it was too high.
For about a month things have changed, the roads are more passable, the results are visible. Of the six S400 anti-aircraft systems located in Crimea, two have already been put out of action. Other S300s, less precise, but numerous, met the same fate. The protective dome over Crimea is therefore cracked and Kiev takes advantage of it.
For Ukraine the problem is not to leave the launchers, which are essentially trucks with large wheels, within reach of the Russian response. When moving through the streets behind the front, the launchers have priority over everything and everyone. Ambulances also have to give them a way. This lengthens the time required for missions: you have to arrive, prop up the vehicle, frame the target, confirm it perhaps with drone images, shoot and leave before the Russian reaction. If the American Atacms arrived, which have a useful firing range of up to 300 kilometers, everything would be simpler and less anxiety-inducing. US President Joe Biden has just promised them and Germany could add some of its Taurus with a range of 200 kilometers greater.
The Russians deny the deaths of their officers and also the anti-aircraft problems. Yesterday they claimed responsibility for the destruction of a Leopard tank with a “totally German crew”. Not mercenaries, but members of the Bundeswehr.” If confirmed it would be surprising, but there is nothing concrete to support the thesis.
Four days after Ukrainian President Zelensky’s speech at the United Nations Assembly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke yesterday. “The declared goal of inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia is an obsession that has blinded Western politicians,” Lavrov said. This would be demonstrated by “the recent exercises between the United States and its European NATO allies, including tests for the use of nuclear weapons on the territory of the Russian Federation”. For Moscow, Zelensky’s “peace formula” is “unrealizable and everyone knows it”. If the West “does not want to understand the crisis in Ukraine and instead wants to solve the problem on the battlefield, then it will be done on the battlefield.”
September 24, 2023 (modified September 24, 2023 | 09:57)
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
#Russian #fleet #decapitated #generals #among #victims #Crimea #time.news