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Russia’s military can currently fire a simultaneous salvo of 77 ballistic missiles and plans to increase that number to 200, according to Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, the officer leading Ukraine’s drone forces.
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“Even if they only manage half of that, it will all be flying at us,” he told the Associated Press news agency on Monday.
The warning points to one of Ukraine’s most exposed vulnerabilities – a shortage of interceptors for the US-made Patriot systems, the only weapon in Kyiv’s arsenal capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.
That shortfall means dozens of missiles fired during mass barrages already get through and hit their targets. And while the there have been mixed signals form the US regarding a possible licence for Patriot interceptor missiles, Ukrainian forces have to look for other solutions.
Brovdi said the only way to bring the number down is to strike every facility involved in producing them, the logic behind Ukraine’s log-range strikes deep into Russia’s territory.
Ukraine’s campaign in Crimea
Brovdi’s warning came amid Ukraine’s campaign of cutting Crimea of Russian control and ground lines of communication.
He said his units could strike seven times as many targets on the peninsula if Western funding, already pledged, arrived faster.
As it stands, he put his forces’ equipment at just 14% of what full capacity would require.
“It’s not that the production capacity of Ukrainian manufacturers doesn’t allow us to make the necessary quantities,” he said. “It’s the banal problem of untimely financing, which our partners do allocate, but which moves significantly slower than our plans.”
Since the offensive began in late June, Ukrainian forces have hit rail bridges, oil depots and power infrastructure, disrupting supply lines and destroying more than 300 Russian air defence assets – surface-to-air systems, radar stations and electronic warfare equipment – to clear a path for drones.
Brovdi said Ukrainian intelligence indicated Russian authorities had since ordered military commands and security services off the peninsula, along with a covert order to remove secret archives and artworks.
Moscow is meanwhile working to close the gap.
Brovdi said Russia is deploying jamming systems that will partly degrade Starlink connectivity in Crimea and is building its own satellite communication network, which, Brovdi said is “a risk for the entire planet,” he said, “because a dictatorship will gain access to information across the whole globe.”
Additional sources • AP