LONDON — Russia is making an attempt to destroy Ukraine’s electrical energy community earlier than the winter however is combating a scarcity of high-precision, long-range missiles, Western officers stated Tuesday.
Ukraine says Russia has destroyed nearly a 3rd of its energy stations via missile assaults launched within the final week, inflicting energy cuts throughout the nation together with elements of Kyiv and the southern metropolis of Mykolaiv.
Western officers stated the Kremlin was “pursuing a deliberate technique of trying to destroy Ukraine’s electrical energy community” however was more and more counting on Iranian Shahed (martyr) drones as a result of its stockpiles of cruise missiles have been working low.
“Our evaluation is that the flexibility for the Russians to proceed with these saturating barrages of precision weapons is attending to the purpose now the place this might be unsustainable,” one official stated.
Ukrainian forces are “successfully neutralizing many” Iranian drones earlier than they hit key strategic targets within the nation, the official added.
“They do fly fairly slowly although so they’re much extra inclined to being shot down by small arms and different techniques. The techniques have been: Utilizing them en masse within the hope some get via,” the official stated.
In an replace earlier this week, the U.Okay.’s protection ministry questioned Russia’s functionality of launching long-range missile assaults, arguing the Russian protection business “might be incapable of manufacturing superior munitions on the charge they’re being expended.”
Earlier Tuesday, U.Okay. Overseas Secretary James Cleverly criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for launching “cowardly drone assaults.”
“These are determined acts of a person shedding a conflict on the battlefield,” he tweeted. “It’s why we despatched air defence missiles. He received’t break the Ukrainians or our resolve to face with them.”
The Western official additionally stated the Russian forces are being led by a really small variety of inexperienced officers, shortly promoted regardless of their lack of battlefield expertise.
