Putin downplays strike that hit base
One day after Ukraine used newly acquired, U.S.-made missiles to launch a damaging attack on Russian air bases in occupied territories, Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to play down the impact the weapons will have on the battlefield.
“It is another mistake by the United States,” Putin said, adding that it will only prolong “Ukraine’s agony.”
Speaking with journalists at the end of his visit to China, Putin admitted that the delivery of the long-range missiles — known as ATACMs — would “create a new threat” and “cause harm” to Russia, but that the new weapons “cannot change the situation on the front lines” because Russia can fend off attacks by such missiles.
Dan Rice, the president of the American University in Kyiv, Ukraine, and a military expert who has long lobbied for the U.S. to provide the munitions, disputed Putin’s assessment.
“These are ballistic missiles,” Rice said. “He has no defense against them. Other than misinformation.”
“Any supply depot or command and control or large troop concentration within 100 miles of the front line should be worried,” he said.
Russian military bloggers loosely affiliated with the Kremlin noted the devastating impact of the first use of the missiles.
The Fighterbomber Telegram channel, which is believed to be run by Capt. Ilya Tumanov of the Russian army, called the strikes “one of the most serious blows” since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
However, military analysts also noted that Russia has adjusted to new Ukrainian strike capabilities in the past and would likely do so again, and continues to maintain air superiority in the conflict zone.
The White House had long resisted providing the weapons to Ukraine out of concern that it would escalate the conflict with the Kremlin, a threat bolstered by Putin’s episodic threats to unleash tactical nuclear weapons.
Over the past 19 months, Russia has attacked Ukraine with nearly every conventional weapon in its arsenal, and Ukraine has dismissed concerns about escalation as it fights for its survival as a sovereign nation.
The Biden administration finally agreed to provide Ukraine with a version of the missile with a limited range of only 100 miles, and covertly delivered them in recent days. The weapons delivered so far have been the variety armed with cluster munitions that spread out to do maximum damage to exposed targets such as aircraft on a runway.
Frederick B. Hodges, a retired lieutenant general and former top U.S. Army commander in Europe, said the addition of ATACMs — for Army Tactical Missile System — to the Ukrainian arsenal will have both immediate and long-term impacts on the battlefield.
As the first strikes aimed at the air bases demonstrated, Ukraine will seek to inflict maximum damage to Russia’s fleet of planes and helicopters, Hodges said. That could force Russia to move those assets to airfields farther away from the front, reducing their effectiveness against Ukrainian forces.
Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, noted Tuesday night that Russian helicopters operating close to the front line had been used to target mechanized Ukrainian forces deployed in Ukraine’s southern counteroffensive. “The relocation of aircraft to airfields further in the rear will likely impact the loitering time that Russian aviation will have to support operations,” the analysts said.
Ultimately, Hodges said, all new long-range strike capabilities are critical in helping sever the “land bridge” linking Russia to the occupied Crimean Peninsula. He said Tuesday’s strike “demonstrates the viability of long-range precision strike weapons to make Russian-occupied airfields and facilities untenable.”
ASSAULTS ESCALATE
In a likely reflection of its own concern over the threat posed by Ukrainian forces on the Dnieper, the Kremlin has stepped up its assaults on Ukrainian towns and villages along the river, dropping dozens of powerful bombs in recent days that have injured and killed civilians.
In the most recent attack before dawn Wednesday, Russian aircraft launched guided aerial bombs that hit three communities and killed two civilians, Ukrainian officials said.
Kherson was just one of nine regions targeted over the past day, Ukrainian officials said.
At least five people were killed and five others wounded when a Russian missile hit an apartment building in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia early Wednesday, local authorities said. The strike was part of a larger attack in which six Russian missiles damaged transportation infrastructure and homes in Zaporizhzhia overnight, according to Yuri Malashko, the head of the regional military administration.