Enceladus skrev: ↑fredag 26 april 2024 23:16
dr Cassandra Nojdh skrev: ↑fredag 26 april 2024 19:52
Och det bidde en tumme, verkar det som:
Ukraine war: Kyiv's plea for Patriots falls short in Greece and Spain
BBC skrev:Greece in particular has stocks of Patriots and S-300s. But Prime Minister Kyrios Mitsotakis has ruled out handing any to Kyiv. "We explained why we cannot do it," he told Skai TV. His said his country's air defences were "critical systems for the protection of Greek air space".
Athens has provided Kyiv with weapons and ammunition but is wary of losing any of its deterrent capability because of potential flare-ups with neighbour Turkey, even though relations at the moment are relatively stable.
Spain's military has three Patriot batteries, but argues that it needs them and can only provide a "very limited number" of Patriot missiles because its reserve is low, sources have told El País newspaper.
Belgium to deliver first F-16 jets to Ukraine in 2024
Belgien levererar F-16-plan till Ukraina redan i år. USA levererar också Patriot-missiler och Switchblade-drönare, men senare.
Ja, problemet är ju att dessa förnödenheter behövs
nu, inte
senare.
F.ö. märklig kombo i kommentarerna. Stridsflyg och luftvärn är
inte kommunicerande kärl och F-16AM-leveranserna kan
inte ersätta high-end LV-system som Patriot och SAMP/T (var är förresten de från Slovakien och Rumänien återtagna SAMP/T-systemen, är det Meloni som sätter krokben?).
Möjligen kan F-16AM användas för att jaga ryska kryssningsmissiler, alltså den defensiva roll som jag beskrev här:
viewtopic.php?p=417201#p417201
Något som Ukrainas flygvapen också ägnat sig åt tidigare, men en förhållandevis kostnadsineffektiv metod.
Som framgår av den refererade BBC-artikeln sitter det hårt åt i Europa - endast Tyskland är villigt att donera ytterligare ett Patriotsystem, övriga kan (kanske] avvara (lite) missiler.
ISW 2024-04-27 skrev: The US DoD stated that the announcement marks the beginning of the “contracting process,” and the timeline of the production and delivery of these weapons is unclear at this time. Spanish outlet El Pais reported on April 26 that Spain will send a ”limited” number of Patriot missiles to Ukraine.[25] Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on April 26 at the Ramstein format meeting that Ukraine needs long-range weapons and air defense systems and reported that Russian forces have used more than 9,000 guided glide bombs against Ukraine since the start of 2024.[26]
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin observed that the Patriot is not a silver bullet and that many factors will determine the course of the fighting.[27] No single weapons system is a silver bullet, to be sure, but the Patriot is one of the very few air defense systems able to engage Russian ballistic missiles and also to hit Russian fighter-bombers outside the range of Russian glide bombs. ISW continues to assess that Ukraine’s degraded air defense capabilities have allowed Russian aviation to heavily degrade Ukrainian defenses along the front with glide bomb strikes.[28] Zelensky stated that although Russian forces have seized the battlefield initiative in the past six months, Ukrainian forces will still be able to "not only stabilize the front but also advance.”[29]
Lägg märke till försvarminister Austins snack om "silver bullet" - vi har tyvääär inga Patriot, men vi har annat ni kan få. Fortsatt fingerpekande, alltså:
Austin calls European allies, seeking more Patriots for Kyiv
Samtidigt fortsätter ryssarna att skjuta bort det ukrainska energisystemet med sina strategiska missilanfall. Ingen del av landet är förskonat
ISW 2024-04-27 skrev:Russian forces conducted large-scale cruise and ballistic missile strikes against Ukraine on the night of April 26 to 27 and have likely resumed sea based Kalibr cruise missile strikes after a long pause.
Ukrainian Air Force Commander Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk reported on April 27 that Russian forces launched 34 missiles: nine Kh-101/555 cruise missiles from Saratov Oblast; nine Kh-59/69 cruise missiles from Belgorod Oblast and the Sea of Azov; two S-300 missiles from Belgorod Oblast; two Iskander-K ballistic missiles, four Kh-47 Kinzhal ballistic missiles from Ryazan and Tambov oblasts; and eight Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea.[31] Oleshchuk stated that Ukrainian forces destroyed 21 total missiles: six Kh-101/555s, eight Kh59/69s, one Iskander-K, and six Kalibrs.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko and Ukraine’s largest private energy operator DTEK reported that unspecified Russian missiles struck Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities in Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts and “seriously” damaged four unspecified thermal power plants (TPPs).[32]
Det är faktiskt plågsamt att läsa. Återigen för lite och framför allt
för sent.
The US war aid might be too little, too late for Ukraine
(The Spectator, en av UK:s äldsta konservativa idétidskrifter, som knappast kan beskyllas för "rysk propaganda".
But for many ordinary Ukrainians, the aid is too little, too late. ‘While the Americans have been arguing, our children have been dying,’ says Mikhail Spivak, a Kyiv-based IT engineer who now develops drones to support infantry operations. ‘Of course it is good that more weapons will come. But we know our place now, we know the value [the US places on] Ukrainian lives. And it’s way below Israeli lives.’ A separate bill approving funding for Israel passed easily in Congress tonight, with 365 in favour and only 57 opposed.
[.... ]
If the promised US aid reaches Ukraine in time, a feared major Russian breakthrough or even a collapse of the Ukrainian army will have been averted. But the bloody and humiliating delay in US aid has taught the beleaguered Ukrainians one hard lesson: that their security is dependent on the political whims of their allies, and could once again evaporate. That is not a recipe for victory, and only barely one for survival.