"Bolster"? Hacked authenticated documents taken two weeks ago from the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff flatly state that Ukraine will have "no effective air defense system by late May". They're toast.
That means that Russia can lob artillery, fire missiles and deploy fixed wing aircraft to bomb targets throughout the Ukraine without fear of getting fired upon.
Ukraine Seeks to Bolster Air Defenses After Russian Missile Barrages
Strikes come after purported U.S. documents showed Ukraine running low on antiaircraft missiles
By Isabel Coles, WSJ
Updated May 2, 2023 2:11 pm ET
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said further steps were being taken to shield the country’s skies after Russia killed scores of people in two deadly missile barrages, seeking to weaken Ukraine ahead of a planned offensive to retake territories occupied by Moscow.
Ukraine’s air defenses responded to the two deadly Russian missile barrages over the past week by shooting down all but five of the 41 missiles.
“But, unfortunately, not all of them,” Mr. Zelensky said in his nightly address following the latest barrage on Monday. “We are working with our partners as actively as possible to make the protection of our skies even more reliable.”
In the deadliest strike, a missile slammed into a multistory apartment block in the central Ukrainian city of Uman on Friday, killing 23 people, including four children.
After visiting the scene of the strike, France’s ambassador to Ukraine, Etienne de Poncins, said on Twitter he had gone to Uman “to remind everyone that missile strikes on civilian buildings are a war crime.”
In Brussels on Tuesday, European Union officials said the bloc would launch a plan this week to boost EU production of ammunition to one million shells a year. Ukrainian officials have been urging Western nations for months to speed up the delivery of artillery ahead of what is expected to be a critical counteroffensive by Kyiv.
An apartment block in the central Ukrainian city of Uman was hit by missiles launched by Russia. Photo: Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images
The plan, which comes in addition to a recent promise to deliver one million artillery shells to Ukraine over the next 12 months, will see the EU and member states use public funds to provide loans or subsidize the interest-rate cost of bank loans for defense firms that agree to expand their production capacity.
The EU will put 500 million euros, equivalent to $549.85 million, behind the plan, and officials hope the bloc’s financing arm, the European Investment Bank, will also participate. Member states will provide the rest of the funding, but the amount they will be required to pitch into each loan will be lower if the defense firm they partner with agrees to prioritize its ammunition production for Ukraine.
Thierry Breton, the European commissioner for industry and defense, said the initiative marks the first time that regular EU budget funds will be used to directly bolster the production of weapons.
“The Act we are proposing is unprecedented. It aims to directly support, with EU money, the ramp-up of our defense industry for Ukraine and for our own security,” he said.
EU member states have been wary of digging further into stocks to help Ukraine because of concerns about the amount of time it would take to rebuild defenses. Currently, it can take more than 12 months to get ammunition contracts fulfilled.
Relatives and friends attend the child’s funeral. PHOTO: ROMAN PILIPEY/GETTY IMAGES
EU officials haven’t provided figures on how much ammunition the European defense industry produces. However, they have said that the bloc has reimbursed member states with €450 million for ammunition since the war began, equivalent to roughly 350,000 rounds of 155mm ammunition.
Ukraine’s ability to win back territory from Russian forces is seen as crucial to securing continued military assistance from Washington. Battlefield success could work to tamp down complaints from some congressional Republicans about the more than $100 billion the U.S. has authorized toward military, humanitarian and economic assistance for Kyiv.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), who has warned against a “blank check” for Ukraine, sharply defended U.S. aid in an exchange with a Russian reporter on Monday. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), who has tried to nudge Mr. McCarthy to more forcefully support Ukraine, on Tuesday praised Mr. McCarthy’s words.
“He reminded everyone of his ongoing support of aid to Ukraine and of Republicans’ commitment to help our friends win,” Mr. McConnell said.
Over the winter, air-defense systems supplied by Kyiv’s Western allies helped Ukraine weather a Russian campaign to destroy its energy infrastructure and hurt morale. The frequency of Russian missile barrages has decreased since then, reflecting what Ukrainian and Western officials say are dwindling stockpiles of munitions. Last month, Ukraine also began receiving Patriot air-defense systems pledged by the Biden administration in December as part of a nearly $2 billion arms package.
But Kyiv has also faced major challenges finding antiaircraft missiles, including the Soviet-designed ammunition for the backbone of its air-defense system, the S-300 and Buk batteries.
The acuteness of the shortage was underscored in purported Pentagon presentations leaked on social media that surfaced last month, assessing that Russia could achieve its long-sought goal of air superiority in Ukrainian skies as early as May. The document said two Nasams and one Iris-T air-defense battery provided by the U.S., Norway, Canada and Germany were also on track to run out of ammunition.
Recent Russian missile barrages have targeted military-industrial facilities in Ukraine. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday’s strikes targeted Ukrainian military-industrial objects and “successfully disrupted” the production of military resources.
While the tempo of missile strikes has slowed, areas within range of Russian rocket and artillery fire continue to be battered daily. The southern city of Kherson’s military administration said Russian forces had shelled territory on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River and an island where Ukrainian forces were said to have recently established positions. Three people were killed as a result of Russian shelling of two villages in the Kherson region on Tuesday, said Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the region’s military administration.
Russian forces have targeted Kherson and surrounding areas on the western bank of the river daily since Ukrainian forces drove them out in an offensive last year. Ukraine has since been on the defensive in the east of the country, fighting to hold back Russian advances while training and equipping its forces for an anticipated offensive backed by Western partners.
Ukrainian forces are now fighting to defend their last remaining supply route into the city of Bakhmut, which has become the war’s deadliest battlefield. Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, Ukraine’s commander of ground forces overseeing the Bakhmut campaign, visited the city, where Ukrainian forces have been pushed back into western districts following months of brutal combat.
“Together with the commanders, we made a number of necessary decisions aimed at ensuring effective defense and inflicting maximum losses on the enemy,” Gen. Syrsky said.
Ukraine has also taken big losses in Bakhmut, raising questions at home and among Kyiv’s Western allies about the decision to keep holding the city. Kyiv says the strategy is degrading Russian combat power while buying time for other Ukrainian forces to be trained and equipped in preparation for an offensive to recapture occupied territories.
The timing and target of that offensive are closely guarded, but military strategists say Ukraine could seek to make inroads into a band of territory occupied by Russia along Ukraine’s southern coast.
Russian state news agency RIA on Tuesday said a bomb had been planted near the house of the deputy head of the Moscow-installed Ministry of Internal Affairs for the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region. The official was hospitalized, it said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Ivan Fedorov, Melitopol’s elected Ukrainian mayor who is operating in exile, said there had been an explosion in the city, which is in the Zaporizhzhia region.
The attack is the latest in a spate targeting Russian-installed officials and military personnel in Melitopol, which is located in the area that may be a prime target of Ukraine’s offensive.
Laurence Norman contributed to this article.
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