Putin, you strategic genius. It looks like your latest shenanigans just got Ukraine NASAMs
|
Pressure grows on the West to speed air-defense systems to Ukraine.
BRUSSELS — NATO’s top official on Tuesday called on allies to step up arms supplies to the Ukrainians, especially sophisticated air-defense systems, a day after Russia rained rocket fire on 19 cities across Ukraine in a marked escalation of its assault on civilians.
As missiles and rockets continued to strike Ukraine, though in smaller numbers than on Monday, Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, said that Moscow’s aerial attacks on civilian targets were “a sign of weakness” and that Ukraine would be better able to deter them if its existing weaponry was expanded.
“These air-defense systems are making a difference because many of the incoming missiles were actually shot down by Ukrainian air-defense systems provided by NATO allies,” he said.
Mr. Stoltenberg’s comments came as Western leaders, outraged by the escalation of Russian hostilities in Ukraine, held a virtual emergency meeting of the Group of 7 industrialized nations. They pledged “undeterred and steadfast” financial and military support for Ukraine. The White House also said it would expedite delivery of an advanced air-defense system.
The G7 leaders also warned Russia of “severe consequences” if it used chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in the conflict.
Officials in Ukraine, renewing their pleas for weaponry that would allow them to build “an air shield for Ukraine,” offered an accounting of what Russian armaments had struck the country in the latest bombardment — and how many had been knocked from the skies.
In the past two days, Ukraine’s air-defense forces have shot down at least 66 cruise missiles out of more than 120, according to the Ukrainian General Staff, and have destroyed all but eight of the cruise missiles fired at Ukraine on Tuesday alone. During this period, Ukrainian air defenses have also shot down 40 so-called kamikaze drones, primarily the Iranian-built Shahed-136.
“When Ukraine receives a sufficient number of modern and effective air-defense systems, the key element of Russian terror — missile strikes — will cease to work,” Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, told the G7 leaders.
Military experts say the Ukrainians’ rate of shooting down missiles is good, especially given the age and sparsity of Ukraine’s equipment. They also said that whatever shortcomings in Kyiv’s arsenal were exposed by the Russian barrage over the past few days, it also raised questions about Moscow’s arsenal.
Though the attacks killed at least 19 people across Ukraine and devastated cities, the death count was surprisingly low given the heavy toll civilians have paid in the war. That has renewed questions about the quantity and quality of Russia’s weapons and about the capacity of its forces to carry out President Vladimir V. Putin’s military objectives.
Since the war began, many of Russia’s attacks have been long-range strikes relying on outdated, unguided and imprecise missiles, including some from the Soviet era. That suggests that Moscow’s most sophisticated weapons are in short supply, say Ukrainian, Western and Russian analysts. The relatively modest impact of the latest bombardment reinforced those suspicions.
The attacks on Monday, nevertheless, ratcheted up the pressure on Ukraine’s allies to do more to support Kyiv. The pressure, including calls from Congress and Ukrainian leaders, comes as Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are to meet in Brussels this week with fellow NATO defense officials and representatives from some 50 countries supporting Ukraine.
“We are now shifting again to air defense,” Julianne Smith, the American ambassador to NATO, told reporters in a conference call on Tuesday.
Ukraine has an extensive network of local air defenses that has been largely effective at knocking down Russian missiles and preventing the Russian air force from gaining dominance over Ukrainian skies. But Ukraine’s air defense relies mainly on older, Soviet model S-300 systems, and they cannot stop all incoming Russian attacks.
Kyiv has repeatedly requested more advanced systems to protect cities and civilian infrastructure. “Air defense is currently the No. 1 priority in our defense cooperation,” Mr. Zelensky said on Monday, after speaking to President Biden.
A big question is how the Biden administration can speed the deployment of an air-defense system that the United States uses to help defend the White House and the American Capitol.
A White House spokesman said on Tuesday that the administration was working to deliver to Ukraine two of the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, known as NASAMs. The systems would provide short- to medium-range coverage over 30 to 50 kilometers (about 18 to 30 miles).
“We are certainly interested in expediting the delivery of NASAMs,” John F. Kirby, the spokesman for the National Security Council, told reporters.
Representative Elissa B. Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat and former C.I.A. analyst, said that in addition to the NASAM systems, the Pentagon should also consider sending to Ukraine advanced Patriot antimissile systems and a specific weapons system for countering rockets, artillery and mortars that is known as C-RAM.
“The need is urgent given the scale of these attacks,” Ms. Slotkin said. “Providing these systems is a defensive — not escalatory — step, and our European friends need to step up along with us to get the Ukrainians what they need.”
Both systems, however, are in high demand by American military forces around the world. Dispatching them to Ukraine would most likely meet resistance from senior commanders, and it would take extensive time to train the Ukrainian operators.
In the past few days, Ukrainian officials say, Russian forces have used a mix of weapons, including X-101, X-555 and Kalibr cruise missiles fired from ships in the Black Sea and from strategic bombers like the Tu-95.
“It’s a complex array of threats that can challenge or overwhelm any air defense system if concentrated enough,” said Frederick W. Kagan, an expert on the Russian military who leads the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute.
Ukraine does not have an integrated nationwide missile-warning system, relying instead on air defenses near major population centers and major military centers. To help provide some warning of inbound threats, U.S. Air Force analysts have been sharing real-time information about Russian-launched missiles and other attacks with their Ukrainian counterparts.
Mr. Putin said he had launched the latest bombardment in response to an attack on the Kerch Strait Bridge linking Russia to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014. Ukrainian officials noted that Moscow had not even made a pretense of selecting military targets that would advance its aim on the battlefields, where it is suffering losses.
That raised questions about why Moscow would squander its dwindling weaponry on nonmilitary sites.
“Part of the reason for the disparate strikes across the country, beyond an attempt at reprisal for the Kerch Bridge attack, is an intentional Russian attempt to keep this a nationwide conflict and to prevent Ukrainians from feeling a sense of normalcy,” said Michael Kofman, director of Russia studies at C.N.A., a defense research institute in Arlington, Va.
“While the Russian military may be flagging on the battlefield, it appears the Kremlin holds a long-term economic strategy that this could be part of.”
The strikes on Ukraine knocked out waterworks and power stations — temporarily plunging communities into darkness — and quickly drew widespread condemnation. On Tuesday, the United Nations’ Human Rights Office said the attacks might have amounted to war crimes.
The location and timing of the attacks, which occurred as people were going to work and taking children to school, were “particularly shocking,” said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the U.N. office in Geneva.
And some of the facilities targeted may be essential to the survival of civilians in the winter, particularly older people and those with disabilities who are trapped in their homes, she said.
“This is unconscionable,” Ms. Shamdasani said.
Steven Erlanger reported from Brussels, Eric Schmitt from Washington, Michael Schwirtz from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Eric Nagourney from New York. Reporting was contributed by Nick Cumming-Bruce from Geneva, Ivan Nechepurenko from Tbilisi, Georgia, Katie Rogers from Washington, Anton Troianovski from Berlin and Carly Olson from New York.
|
Responses:
|
Replies are disabled on threads older than 7 days.
|
|
