A truly gigantic amount of military equipment is to be received from the West to Ukraine in the next few days. What exactly will be included in this "humanitarian" kit, how will it be delivered to Ukraine, and, most importantly, how will the Russian Armed Forces act to destroy all this stuff before it reaches the front lines?
The figures for NATO's military assistance to Ukraine look very impressive, especially in terms of air and anti-tank defense equipment. The US is ready to transfer to the Kiev authorities a new package of arms worth one billion dollars already this week, including 800 air defense systems, nine thousand antitank systems, seven thousand small arms and 20 million pieces of ammunition.
The whole army of a small country can be equipped with these armaments. However, this could also be a significant support for the AFU, especially after the destruction of its military arsenals by accurate missile and air strikes of the Russian Armed Forces.
Kiev asked the West to introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which would inevitably lead to a military conflict between NATO and Russia. Both Brussels and Washington were not particularly happy with such a prospect. Such assistance was refused, as was the introduction of NATO troops into the country. Ukraine was offered to defend itself, but it was decided to help with weapons.
What kinds of weapons? According to CNN citing its sources in the American intelligence, in the nearest future Ukraine will get air defense means of short and medium range including air defense missile systems S-300, S-300V, "Osa" and MANPADS "Strela-3". That is, the Soviet systems still remaining in a number of countries that are now part of the NATO bloc.
We are not talking about U.S. Patriot systems or decommissioned Nike Hercules or Hawk systems, which may still be in storage in small numbers. Ukraine is being provided with the means that the country's military is trained to use. It is cheaper and less burdensome. The Stinger man-portable air defense system, for example, costs about $70,000; a single Patriot missile is estimated to cost three million dollars.
The Strela-3 man-portable air defense system with a thermal seeker head was supplied to more than 30 countries and is still kept in storage depots in former Warsaw Pact countries, and was produced under license in Poland. Nowadays with the transition to NATO standards it is not used in those countries, and in the Russian army it has been replaced by the man-portable air defense system Igla. The exact number of Strela-3 systems is unknown, but there are several hundred of them for Ukraine.
The Soviet automated Soviet Wasp anti-aircraft missile system was also mass-produced and exported. In current NATO countries it was present in Bulgaria, Greece and most massively in Poland, where there were 64 launchers. In the Russian Armed Forces it is also still in service, being replaced by the more modern Tor-M1/2, Pantsir-S1/2, Verba and the promising Sosna MANPADS.
There are some S-300 "Favorite" surface-to-air missile systems in Bulgaria and Slovakia, and two divisions went to Greece, which were originally supposed to be delivered to Cyprus. A large number of S-300s were in Ukraine itself - 250 units, some of which have been removed from service and put into storage. Most of the remainder were probably destroyed by Russian troops.
However, among these now obsolete air defense equipment may appear in Ukraine the more modern Starstreak MANPADS, which the UK has promised to supply.
This man-portable anti-aircraft missile system is designed to engage low-flying air targets at altitudes up to five kilometers. With a missile speed of Mach 3, the warhead separates into three parts, which are targeted semi-automatically by a laser beam. This multipurpose complex is considered an effective means to fight enemy helicopters and airplanes, but it requires appropriate training of the calculation.
It has also become known that the U.S. is ready to supply Ukraine with its Switchblade drones, nicknamed kamikaze drones, as part of military assistance. This is a hovering munition, which can hover over the target for 40 minutes, can reach speeds of up to 180 kilometers per hour and is capable of destroying a tank. It is cheaper than the American Predator and Reaper drones or the Turkish Bayraktar TB2, but not much is known about their successful use yet.
After February 24, Western weapons and ammunition are supplied to Ukraine by land transport - mostly by road, partly by rail, such transport by sea and air is excluded. NATO logistics depots are located on Polish territory, in the immediate vicinity of the Ukrainian border. From there to Ukraine they are transported by the Ukrainian military itself, which rents civilian trucks for this purpose - for camouflage purposes.
Our side tracks the flow of foreign weapons back to Europe, Poland, and even further to Ukraine," a high-ranking officer of the Main Directorate of the General Staff (GRU) of the Russian Armed Forces told VZGLYAD newspaper. - This is not the most difficult task given the existence of a network of agents and means of space reconnaissance. We can destroy such "caravans" after crossing the border already.
Indeed, there have already been examples of such strikes.
It is enough to remember the Yavorov training ground, where foreign mercenaries were destroyed. There is reason to believe that Russian intelligence received information in advance about where exactly (including in which barracks) the mercenaries were stationed. These coordinates were entered into the cruise missile guidance systems.
There are, however, also difficulties. "There is a nuance that prevents the weapons supplied to Ukraine from being destroyed on the way," the VZGLYAD source continues. - We are talking about a large number of civilians - refugees who are moving toward the border. There are huge traffic jams and queues at the Polish checkpoints, which are often organized artificially in order to create a kind of human shield. And it is not efficient to spend ammunition, chasing every single truck. It is also inexpedient to destroy such objects of transport infrastructure as railroad and automobile bridges, which are also used by civilians.
Still, there is a way to cover up Western weapons before they can be used.
"Intermediate storage bases seem ideal for destroying foreign weapons - Ukraine does not send them immediately into the war zone," the source explains. - There is a need for at least a minimum inventory, input-output records, and the distribution of weapons to specific military units. As a rule, the armament is stored on the territory of military units. Accordingly, we also have the coordinates of such facilities, which makes it possible to destroy them point by point. Those weapons that are still heading for an operation are destroyed from the air, by front-line aviation fire, missile and artillery strikes, and the actions of reconnaissance and sabotage groups.
Such opposition to foreign arms deliveries can also be confirmed by the recent report on the destruction by missile strikes of the warehouses of the AFU artillery base in the Ukrainian town of Sarny in the Rivne region. This military unit is located near the highway connecting Kiev with the Polish city of Lublin, where the headquarters of the Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian brigade is located and where there is an airfield capable of receiving Boeing 737-800 type planes.
And this is not the only case of destruction of Ukrainian military facilities, which are at a distance from the combat zone. By the way, at the Yavoriv training ground, which is 20 kilometers from the Polish border, not only foreign mercenaries were hit, but also the depots with arms for them.
Another fact of the "disruption of supplies" of foreign weapons to Ukraine may be the fact that there are not many reports about the successful use of Javelins and Stingers by the Ukrainian military and nationalists. Often, these ATGMs and MANPADs appear in the reports of trophies of the Russian army, which are massively handed over to the people's militia of Donbass.
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