ISW mukaan Shoigu on ilmoittanut Venäjän vallanneen 400 km^2 Ukrainan alueita 2024 aikana (2.4.2024).
Russian Defense Minister
Sergei Shoigu claimed on April 2 that Russian forces seized about 400 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in the first three months of 2024 — a rate of advance not necessarily reflective of wider Russian offensive prospects due to the impact of US security assistance delays.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law on April 2 that lowers the Ukrainian military’s mobilization age from 27 to 25 years of age. The Verkhovna Rada approved the law in May 2023, and the law will come into force on April 3, 2024. Lowering t
www.understandingwar.org
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Yhtänä suurena syynä on venäläisten KAB-liitopommien käyttö. F-16 on käytettävä näitä vastaan. Ukraina menetti jo Patriotin?, kun veivät sen liian lähelle rintamalinjaa ja venäläisten droneja.
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Once it deploys them in combat in the coming weeks or months, Ukraine will lose F-16s and their pilots. But it has no choice. It must hunt Russia's glide-bombers.
www.forbes.com
Dropping a hundred or more KAB glide-bombs a day from as far away as 40 miles, Russian air force Sukhoi fighter-bombers systematically demolish Ukrainian defenses, easing the way for Russian army assault groups to advance, albeit still at great cost.
KABs are a major reason the Ukrainian garrison in the eastern city Avdiivka ultimately retreated last month following a brutal, four-month battle. The other main reason, of course, is that Russia-friendly Republicans in the U.S. Congress cut off aid to Ukraine starting in October, depriving Ukrainian forces of vital ammunition.
The Ukrainian air force briefly fought back against the Russian glide-bombers in the weeks after Avdiivka fell. Apparently deploying mobile launchers for American-made Patriot air-defense missiles—each ranging as far as 90 miles—the Ukrainians shot down 13 Russian Sukhoi Su-34s and Sukhoi Su-35s in 13 days.
But then, on March 9, a skilled—or at least lucky—Russian drone-operator spotted a Patriot team on the move around 20 miles from the front line, and cued an Iskander ground-launched ballistic missile that blew up two of the Ukrainian launchers and apparently killed their crews.
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If Ukrainian commanders truly appreciate the danger that Russian KABs pose to Ukrainian positions on the ground, they must deploy the F-16s aggressively—and target the Russian Sukhois with their clutches of lethal glide-bombs.