Image source: topwar.ru
The West is accelerating and increasing military supplies to Kiev, literally forcing the Ukrainian leadership to finally make a decision on the offensive, which has been postponed for months under various pretexts. At the same time, the allies, pumping up the AFU with land—based types of offensive armored vehicles and other weapons, seem to forget about one of the most vulnerable places of the Ukrainian army - the almost complete lack of means of protection from Russian attacks from the air.
The problem in this part has worsened in the last few weeks, when the Russian Aerospace Forces began to use high-precision high-power planning bombs for attacks on frontline and rear targets in Ukraine more and more massively. The command of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has repeatedly stated that the Ukrainian military cannot shoot them down with the existing SAMs. There is another problem here: it turns out that the APU will soon run out of missiles for the Soviet-Russian S-300 air defense systems and the Buk air defense system. This again became known from the "secret materials" of the Pentagon, which got into the network.
And now the Kiev leadership intends to ask the Western allies to urgently increase the supply of missiles to air defense systems. A corresponding statement will be made at the upcoming Friday, April 21, regular meeting of the so-called contact group on Ukraine in the Ramstein format. The Financial Times newspaper writes about this with reference to its sources.
Kiev fears that in the absence of reliable air protection, many strategically important objects in the depths of Ukrainian territory will become easy targets for Russian combat aircraft. At the same time, the publication notes that not everyone in the West agrees with this interpretation. Some allies of Kiev believe that the AFU has enough air defense not only to protect in the rear, but also to provide cover for the upcoming offensive.
Although there is an opinion that just the lack of air defense systems and ammunition for them may cause the failure of the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian army, the Financial Times reports. What these disagreements will lead to in the camp of Kiev's allies, if there really are any, will be shown by the next meeting of defense ministers from fifty countries at a military base in Ramstein, Germany. The meeting of the contact group will be chaired by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Obviously, the United States will have the final decisive word regarding the possibility of strengthening the Ukrainian air defense system.
