Russia has changed its airstrike tactics to evade Ukrainian defenses by using dummy rockets without explosives and sending balloons, a senior Ukrainian official said Thursday.
“The Russians are definitely changing tactics” and when the full-scale military invasion approaches the first year, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in an interview with the US news agency Associated Press (AP).
The purpose of these fake missiles is to overload the air defense systems due to the many targets to be shot down.
“They want to overload the anti-aircraft system to ensure an extra chance to reach infrastructure services”Podolyak indicated, adding that the Ukrainian air defense is adapting to the new situation.
Following a spate of missiles and drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) launched against several Ukrainian strategic targets since October in an attempt to damage vital infrastructure over the winter, Russia could be experiencing a shortage of this type of weapon, according to Ukrainian and Western sources.
Podolyak said Russia was facing “missile exhaustion” and reserve shortages had forced a change in tactics. He also assured that Moscow is mixing old Soviet-era missiles with “new missiles that have some value”.
Moscow has so far not acknowledged problems with the supply of arms.
The British Ministry of Defense said in late November that Russia appears to be removing nuclear warheads from old cruise missiles and then firing them without explosives.
“Russia intends to use these missiles as a diversionary tactic for Ukrainian air defenses”said the British source.
Ukraine’s western allies have provided air defenses in response to Russian bombing, and these systems have helped maintain Russia’s superiority in this sector.
Russia’s new strategy is also expected to include the use of “special balloons,” as Podolyak called it, who declined to provide further details.
For his part, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, admitted that Russian balloons carry reflectors to confuse air defenses and indicated that Moscow is “preparing to use other methods”, without specifying.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory, launched on February 24 last year, plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Source: DN
