Today marks the fourth anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s ‘Special Military Operation’ into Ukraine. It was expected to take ten days. However, 1,460 days later, the full-on Russian invasion, which has cost the Kremlin an estimated 1.2 million casualties, continues. Nato assesses Moscow’s losses at up to 30,000 personnel per month. For the first time, this means the combat drain on Russia’s army is now higher than its recruitment levels.
The newly appointed Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov stated recently his goal was to kill or wound 50,000 invading Russian troops per month – pushing Putin towards a price he cannot sustain.Kremlin equipment losses now include nearly 350 helicopters and an astonishing 136,000 military drones. If reports are accurate, Putin’s gamble has cost his army 11,000 – or one in seven – of the world’s entire stock of main battle tanks.
However, for war-wearyUkraine, this is the 12th year of strife withRussia, which first snaked its way into the Crimea on February 26, 2014. Much of the industrial Donbass region in the east was swiftly devoured the following month by Kremlin-backed forces, who shot down an innocent airliner flying over eastern Ukraine, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew aboard. Russia has never apologised.
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Ukraine has changed our understanding of the modern battlespace. Clearly defined front lines are a thing of the past, with a wider, shifting ‘grey zone’, hundreds of miles wide, where civilians as much as soldiers are the targets. Much of the destruction is caused by unmanned air, land and sea machines, which evolve in technological terms, on a daily basis.
In the Black Sea, so many Russian naval vessels have been sunk or disabled that the Russian Navy is afraid to leave port. Both sides have learned that usingElon Musk’s Starlink network of satellites, strategic drones can fly many hundreds of miles to bomb remote targets with an accuracy of inches. AI can only fine-tune this terrifying capability. Yet, their low speeds make them vulnerable to interceptor drones, which literally ram their opponents out of the skies.
Short-range tactical First Person View (FPV) drones, flown by an operator using live-feed goggles or a monitor, now use gossamer-thin fibre optic cables which insulate them against jamming. Such unmanned devices can settle and rest, like an insect, to conserve their battery power, and wait in ambush for targets of opportunity.
Long range, high-speed missiles are still difficult to intercept, with the result that both Moscow and Kyiv rely on the formula that if you launch enough, some will get through. Ukraine is experiencing great success in hitting Russia’s ammunition warehouses, oil terminals and power stations.
Attempting to undermine morale, the Kremlin is conducting terror attacks on schools, hospitals, and residential housing. In the winter, the cold itself has been weaponised. As a result, major offensives featuring armored units and massed infantry, coordinated with aircraft and helicopter gunships, are now rare and difficult to conduct.
Source: Daily Express :: World Feed
