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Vladimir Putin’s air force is so “risk-averse” that it performed less well during the war in Ukraine, leaving its ground forces “exhausted” because they are being asked to do so much, they said. Monday British defense chiefs.
They said the shortcomings of the Russian air force were a key factor in Moscow’s limited success in the conflict, which will enter its fifth month.
The Ministry of Defense in London said that the Russian president had developed a fleet of “modern and capable warplanes”, but this did not compare with “skill sets” or “institutional culture”, as achieved by some Western air forces.
Part of that failure was due to his air combat training, which focused on impressing senior officers instead of encouraging air crews to develop a “dynamic initiative,” he said.
Western defense chiefs are waging an information war against Russia, which is a key part of the conflict in Ukraine, so their allegations must be treated in this context.
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However, Russian allegations must be treated with extreme caution, given that the Kremlin does not even accept that Ukraine is at war and its denials of war crimes and killings of thousands of civilians are flying in the face of widespread reports from the area. conflict.
In its latest intelligence update, the Defense Ministry said: “Russian ground and tactical air operations remained focused on the central sector of Donbass over the weekend.
“In the conflict so far, the Russian air force is performing less well. Its failure to consistently supply air power is probably one of the most important factors behind the very limited success of the Russian campaign.
He could not gain complete superiority in the air and acted in a risk-averse style, rarely penetrating deep behind Ukrainian lines. Some of the main reasons for its difficulties reflect those of the Russian ground forces.
It adds: “Over the years, much of Russia’s air combat training has most likely been strictly script-driven and designed to impress senior officials rather than develop a dynamic initiative among air crews.
While Russia has an impressive list of relatively modern and capable warplanes, the Air Force has also almost certainly failed to develop the institutional culture and skill set needed by its personnel to meet Russia’s aspirations for a modern air campaign. -Western style. .
“This has led to a greater than planned burden of effort falling on land forces that are depleting; and advanced cruise missiles, which are likely to be depleted. “
For weeks, Putin’s generals have been seeking to take over the industrial city of Severodonetsk in the eastern province of Luhansk.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky predicts that Russia will escalate its attacks this week.
“Obviously this week we should expect Russia to intensify its hostile activities,” he said in a video message Sunday night. “We are preparing. We’re ready.”
Russia said on Sunday it had captured Metolkin, a village on the outskirts of the city, and Russia’s state news agency TASS reported that many Ukrainian fighters had surrendered there. The Ukrainian military said Russia had had “partial success” in the region.
Luhansk Governor Sergei Gaidai told Ukrainian television that the Russian attack on Toshkivka, 20 miles south of Severodonetsk, was also “somewhat successful”.
In Severodonetsk itself, a city of 100,000 before the war, Mr Gaidai said Russia controlled the “main part” but not the entire city after intense fighting, with Ukrainian forces still being held at the Azot chemical plant, where hundreds of civilians, including dozens of children, are sheltered.
Both Russia and Ukraine continue heavy bombardment of Severodonetsk “with a slight change on the front line,” the British Ministry of Defense said on Sunday.
On the other side of the river in the twin city of Severodonetsk, Lisichansk, residential buildings and private houses were destroyed by Russian shelling, Mr Gaidai said.
“People are dying in the streets and in bomb shelters,” he warned.
Analysts at the Institute for War Studies, a Washington-based think tank, wrote in a note that “Russian forces are likely to be able to take over Severodonetsk in the coming weeks, but at the cost of concentrating most of their available forces in this small area.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the war in Ukraine could last for years and called on Western governments to continue sending state-of-the-art weapons to Ukrainian troops, the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported.
“We need to be prepared for the fact that this could take years. “We must not stop supporting Ukraine,” he said.
In Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, in the northeastern part of the country, Russia’s defense ministry said its Iskander missiles had destroyed weapons recently delivered from Western countries.
Russian forces were trying to get closer to Kharkiv, which had come under heavy fire earlier in the war, and turn it into a “front-line city,” a Ukrainian Interior Ministry official said.
Ukrainian troops counterattacked in the spring, with some troops reaching the Russian border near Kharkiv but losing territory since then.
The governor of Russia’s Bryansk region said the border village of Suzemka was shelled by northern Ukraine, injuring one person and damaging a power plant.
The General Staff of Ukraine said that Russia has deployed an anti-aircraft missile division in Bryansk and has up to three battalion tactical groups covering the border in Bryansk and neighboring areas of Kursk.
In southern Ukraine, Western weapons have helped Ukrainian forces advance six miles to Russian-occupied Melitopol, the city mayor said in a video posted on the Telegram outside the city.
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