The effects of an October 10, 2022 bombing next to a playground in Kyiv, Ukraine October 14, 2022. LAURENCE GEAI / MYOP FOR THE WORLD
The terror campaign launched ten days ago against Ukrainian cities has hit Europeans. France already delivered between three and four batteries of Crotale missiles last week. Germany, an IRIS-T system, is stationed “in southern Ukraine,” according to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov. And thirty anti-aircraft Gepard anti-aircraft vehicles.
Evidence suggests that these last two weapons are already in action. According to military experts Confict Intelligence Team, the Gepard anti-aircraft tank was likely behind the launch of a Russian X-101 missile just a second before it crashed into Kyiv’s No. 6 power plant on Tuesday, October 18. The same group also reports that the remains of an IRIS-T SLM missile have been found near the capital.
Also read: War in Ukraine: What anti-aircraft equipment does Kyiv demand in the face of Russian missiles and drones?
Regarding the French Crotale, Lieutenant General and former First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Ihor Romanenko tells Le Monde that it is a system that has not yet proven itself in combat situations. “Nothing replaces a real war to evaluate a weapon. Ukraine has reluctantly become a proving ground for many types of weapons, new and old,” laments the officer.
For the Ukrainian military, the western contribution to missile defense remains marginal. “The systems made available to us are very inadequate in terms of numbers. One here, one there. Ukraine is a huge country. A large number of systems are required to secure the airspace and the 2,500-kilometer border. We would have won this war in a few months if our allies had helped us massively and quickly,” Mr. Romanenko said.
“Ukraine needs forty of these systems to secure the skies,” says Oleh Jdanov, a colonel and military expert at Ukraine’s defense ministry. Our great achievement is having closed the skies to Russian planes. Their massive attack on February 24 destroyed only 30% of our anti-aircraft defenses, which we supplemented with a division of Slovak S-300s. Since then, the Russian Air Force has not ventured beyond the front lines, where we would need fifty short-range Gepard or Tunguska-type systems. [système soviétique] ground the Russian Air Force. The problem of missiles and drones remains. »
Oleksandr Filtchakov, Prosecutor General of Kharkiv Region, Ukraine, October 20, 2022. LAURENCE GEAI / MYOP FOR “THE WORLD”
The unexpected appearance in September of the Iranian kamikaze drone Shahed 136 (dubbed “Geran” by Russian authorities, who refuse to admit its Iranian origins) caused significant material and human damage also in the south and west of the country, such as in the heart of the capital, Kyiv .
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