Ukraine. Guns in shoes

It’s been a harsh and snowy Christmas as Ukrainians try to survive the Kremlin’s assault on their country’s electricity infrastructure. The military, though aware of the hardships their families face, hopes to break them before even more reservists, forcibly recruited by Vladimir Putin’s regime, arrive. Volodymyr Zelensky, on the other hand, went to Washington to get more weapons for his forces.

The president of Ukraine carried Ukraine’s flag with him as he traveled by train to Poland, exiting Przemyśl station and riding a white 4×4 motorcycle before crossing the Atlantic on a US military plane. Forward to the US Congress, Buckmut is to be presented. Zelensky, making his first departure from Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, also received an early Christmas present. Joe Biden, in a joint press conference, announced the sending of military aid worth more than 1.8 billion dollars, equivalent to 1.7 billion euros. Including a battery of Patriot missiles, considered one of the most efficient air defense systems on the planet, which Zelensky described as “a new phase” in the already close cooperation between Ukraine and the United States.

Each Patriot battery, usually sold only to Washington’s closest allies, costs a billion euros. They are mounted on trucks and have a missile system with eight missiles, each with up to four missiles, as well as a radar and a control station. It is a system with a range of up to 160 km, depending on the missile used, and is capable of covering an area of ​​about 68 km, according to the patriotic German armed forces DW. It is highly effective against helicopters, aircraft, ships or ballistic missiles, hindering the Kremlin’s ability to destroy Ukraine. However, not only does the Patriot need to be manned by a team of 90 highly trained troops, which takes some time, but it is also very difficult against the waves of cheap Iranian drones that the Russians have used against the power grid.

The Shahed-136 aircraft purchased by the Russians, renamed Zeran-2, are smaller and fly much closer to the ground. The Patriots have shown difficulty against these types of targets in Saudi Arabia, and despite these anti-aircraft defenses, Qased, another model of Iranian kamikaze drones, was shot down by the Houthis, a Yemeni rebel group aligned with Tehran. Besides, each missile launched by the Patriots costs more than a million dollars — the latest models reach four million dollars — and there is no money to use them to destroy drones, which cost a few hundred dollars each.

The Patriot missiles deployed by the US are expected to be earmarked for priority targets, defending Kiev against threats to use tactical nuclear weapons by Vladimir Putin’s regime. Perhaps more importantly, it is a sign that Washington has finally overcome its reluctance to provide heavy weapons to the Ukrainians. The Patriots were part of a long list of gifts requested by Ukraine, which could include F-16s, advanced tanks or long-range missiles, and were unveiled by the Ukrainian president earlier this month.

Yet beneath the pomp, circumstance and appearances of unity, Zelensky’s military commanders and the Pentagon disagreed on what it would take to defeat Ukraine’s invaders. The Ukrainians, eager to launch new counterattacks in winter, want to acquire M1 Abrams tanks that can advance deep if they break through the Russian lines, and they took Izyum, southeast of Kharkiv. But the M1 Abrams, which crippled Saddam Hussein’s Soviet tank systems during the invasion of Iraq, is too complex to operate and difficult for Ukraine to maintain, Pentagon officials assured the Washington Post, adding that Ukrainian forces already had enough tanks.

Another source of contention is what to do about the waves of Russian aerial bombing. Americans want to build a layer of defense, with advanced systems like the Patriot destroying high-value targets and low-cost hunting drones. But for the Kiev government, the only way to stop the disaster is to strike at the source of the blasts.

That means “coordinated attacks against fixed enemy targets, primarily on the runways of Russian attack air bases and in the areas of ballistic and cruise missile launch sites,” wrote Mykhailo Zaprodsky, deputy chairman of the National Defense, Defense and Intelligence Committee. of Ukraine, in an article for Ukrinform Agency. Therefore, Zelensky requested the use of long-range American MGM-140 ATACMS surface-to-surface missiles. Biden vowed not to let go of his Ukrainian adversary’s shoes.

The White House fears it will provoke Putin, who has already described his “special military operation” as against all of NATO. “It is well known that the military capabilities and capabilities of all major NATO countries are being actively used against Russia,” complained the Russian president, as Zelensky addressed Russian military leaders on his way to Washington. “Despite this, our soldiers, sergeants and officers are fighting”, assuring that they are progressing “gradually”.

Gradual is an accurate way of describing the Russian advances, which, with the exception of Pakmut, were almost entirely on the defensive. It was a way to take advantage of the flow of artillery fodder to the front line. Ukrainian commanders fear that if they do not deliver a devastating blow to Russian forces in the spring, Putin will be able to train a new army and advance again, coming from various directions, from the east, south or Belarus. Repeat what was seen in the first moments of the invasion.

“The Russians are preparing about 200,000 new troops,” General Valery Zalushny, chief of staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, warned the Economist this week. “I have no doubt that they will make another attempt against Kiev.”