Russian state-controlled media and Kremlin-loyal hybrid war information platforms reacted grimly to news the US had handed over more than one hundred precision-guided, long-range missiles to Ukraine, with more than a few mil-bloggers saying air defenses in the occupied Crimea peninsula will soon get hammered.
Major Russian news media told viewers the weapons would be used against targets inside Russia, flatly ignoring declarations by US officials that the high-tech American weapons were transferred to Ukraine on the specific condition they may only hit targets inside Ukraine’s borders. But according to those reports, the US was arming Ukraine with the objective of hitting Russian homes and businesses.
Russian propagandist Olga Skabeyeva during a Wednesday, April 24 evening broadcast of the nationally televised Kremlin flagship news program 60 Minut (60 minutes) reported the long range of the newly delivered American weapons covers “an enormous territory of our country, which the Ukrainians now can reach.”
WORLD BRIEFING: May 3, 2024
Quantities of ATACMS missiles are already in the hands of the Ukrainian military and Washington claims arms deliveries only restarted to Kyiv on Wednesday are “misinformation,” Skabeyeva said.
In comments in Washington on Wednesday, only hours before Skabeyeva’s broadcast, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the missiles could be used “inside Ukraine’s sovereign territory…we now have a significant number of ATACMS coming off their production line and entering US stocks. And as a result, we can move forward with providing the ATACMS while also sustaining the readiness of the US armed forces.”
Local Russian news platforms repeated national media reports about potential Ukrainian ATACMS strikes inside Russian Federation territory. The Belgorod Oblast-based Posluchano Klintsy published a map showing a strike envelope stretching almost to the Russian heartland cities Kaluga and Tula – but reassured readers that Russian army S-300 systems could handle the threat.
Russian mil-bloggers – many reporting in step with the Kremlin line for years – widely predicted new waves of Ukrainian long-range strikes using ATACMS, but saw the Moscow-occupied Ukrainian territory Crimea as likely Kyiv’s first target for the missiles.
The banned-in-Ukraine platform Rybar Z, run by Kremlin information warfare specialist Mikhail Zvinchuk, only hours after White House confirmation of the ATACMS transfer, published a detailed report on joint NATO-Ukraine reconnaissance operations in air space above the Black Sea. The spy aircraft sorties along with satellite overflights and drones probing Russian air defenses, the report claimed, all were part of a systematic NATO campaign to fix the locations of Russian air defenses in the Crimea peninsula for targeting and destruction by Ukraine-fired ATACMS.
Key indicators of advanced Ukraine-NATO preparations for the attacks have included a doubling of NATO reconnaissance aircraft activity over the Black Sea over the past week, and the very likely launch by NATO aircraft of US-made ADM-160B decoy missiles into air space above the Black Sea to trigger Russian air defense radars in Crimea and identify their locations, a Rybar report published on Wednesday said.
The Raytheon-manufactured ADM-160B MALD (miniature air-launched decoy) is designed to appear on radars like a combat aircraft and powerful engines and on-board computers allow the drone to mimic flight paths of an attack or fighter jet closely.
“If we add official statements about additional deliveries of long-range missiles, including ATACMS…the picture is clear: new strike attempts (against Crimea) are just around the corner. And this may happen during the May holidays, and even more likely, before the presidential inauguration (of Vladimir Putin) on May 7…the target once again may be the Crimean Bridge, the attention to which is very high,” Zvinchuk’s platform predicted.
“The problem with ATAMCS missiles is that they really are effective. They were specifically designed to attack layered air defenses of the Soviet- and Russian-design,” the pro-Moscow mil-blogger Zhivov Z informed his 75,000+ readers in a glum Thursday morning post.
Kyiv Post was unable to confirm claims about ADM-160B use independently.
Kyiv Post checks of recent NATO air activity in the area reported in open-source air traffic data showed a discernable increase of NATO reconnaissance aircraft sorties to air space above the western and central Black Sea. Most notable was the Tuesday presence of two US Navy Poseidon maritime search aircraft orbiting over southeast Romania, and daily patrols by US Air Force Global Hawk drones to observation points less than 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Crimea or the Russian mainland.
In mid-April, the sortie pace per Kyiv Post research was a single Poseidon daily, and a single Global Hawk every second day.
The White House on Wednesday confirmed the US transferred “a significant number” of ATACMS missiles to Ukraine in March, weeks before the US Congress approved funding more arms handovers to Kyiv. According to US-based major media reports on Thursday, more than 100 ATACMS missiles, each costing $3 million, were sent. Most of the missiles are designed to hit a target 300 kilometers (106 miles) distant with a warhead loaded with cluster munitions, a Thursday New York Times article said.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, in a Thursday situation estimate, said the most likely targets for the long-range ATACMS would be Russian helicopter bases and ammunition depots. “Cluster-munition-armed versions of the ATACMS missiles allow Ukrainian forces to conduct more efficient strikes against airfields that can more widely destroy Russian aircraft and other assets than individual missile strikes on individual aircraft…The arrival of ATACMS long-range missiles could also pose a significant threat to Russian ammunition depots in rear areas and may force the Russian command to choose between fortifying existing depots and further dispersing depots throughout occupied Ukraine,” the report said in part.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in Thursday comments in Moscow told reporters: “The United States is directly involved in this conflict. It is on the road to increasing the range of the weapons systems it already supplies. This will not fundamentally change the outcome of the special military operation [Russo-Ukrainian War]. We will prevail. But it [high-tech US weapons transfers to Kyiv] will cause more problems for Ukraine itself.”
On Wednesday the Russian mil-blogger Rybar Z claimed NATO aircraft reconnaissance air operations over the Black Sea had more than doubled since Monday and that those operations were clear evidence of impending Ukrainian ATACMS strikes against Crimea. The source claimed NATO aircraft had launched decoy drones into air space close to Crimea to trigger Russian air defense radars and identify their location. Kyiv Post checks of open-source air traffic logs showed NATO spy aircraft operational intensity had increased, but not doubled. Aside from the Rybar Z claim, Kyiv Post found no compelling evidence of NATO aircraft – decoy or otherwise – approaching close to Crimea in the past 96 hours.
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Comments (12)
I'M VERY SURE OUR SIDE... DEMOCRACY <--- WILL MAKE EXCELLENT USE OF THESE MISSLES. GETTING EURO COUNTIES TO CONFISCATE pooo-tin FUNDS JUST AS I.PORTANT!
Ukraine reserve the right when it arises to bombard Russia terrorist state and inflict the identical results to Russian cities Moscow St Peters burg etcetera that Russia inflicted on Ukraine 🇺🇦 but with interest , Ukraine 🇺🇦 will decimate the the neo natzi terrorist zombie inbreds they call russians once and for ever,send Russia back where it came from the 2nd century.
Laten we dan maar meteen een duidelijke einde maken en het Kremlin in de as leggen.
NATO boot on the ass for russian force! it can work very well! 👍
Well now looks like the boot will be on the other foot, Russians panicking about the coming of what they've done in Ukraine. Can't wait to read new of bombardments in Russia well what goes around comes around viva Ukraine
So Pest-kov claims that USA has become “directly involved” in this conflict so, by Pest-kov’s own reasoning, Iran and North Korea are also directly involved in it too?
As usual, these developments will cause Putin to yell around with nuke threats.
@Cathy Pacific,
Every stationary ship in Crimea can now been stuck by long-range ATACMS, with a high load of explosives.
The one-two punch of the revelation that Ukraine has in its possession a 'substantial' number of long-range ATACMS (U.S. NSA Jake Sullivan) with the passage of the $60+billion Ukraine aid package leads one to the conclusion that the Russian Federation will lose Crimea by the end of the year. The way Russia's state and social media have been reacting, it looks like they concur.
Picture: * Generals Budanov and Syrsky order on May 7th (Putin's inauguration date), two dozen ATACMS with the 200+kg unitary warhead permanently severing a section of the road and railroad spans of the Kerch Bridge.
* On May 9th Ukraine begins a regular bombardment of road builders and transport along the land bridge highway with Ukraine's soon-to-be massive supply of GLSDB rockets.
* Neptune anti-ship missiles and sea drones, backed up by soon to arrive F-16s, destroy any Russian Navy or supply ships approaching Ukraine's coastline, especially traffic in the Sea of Azov.
* UAF elsewhere stabilize their lines and use maximum lethality in a defensive posture to do what Gen. Syrsky does best - stack up dead Russian conscripts.
* Occasionally lob an ATACMS at repair crews on the severed Kerch bridge to prevent its restoration. Then, sit back and wait for a blacked-out, water-deprived Crimea to be abandoned.
* That abandonment of Crimea order will come after Joe Biden is reelected President of the United States on November 5th.
@Coach John, Agree! There will be far too much pounding of the orc forces. Yes, the ATACMS will severely disable the Kerch and lobbing a missile at the repair crews will abandon attempts at its repair... by end of 2024 demilitarization of Orcs in Crimea should be complete!
I'm sure Russian's would be okay with Ukraine firing no more missiles at them than their forces fired at Ukraine right? I mean it's nothing of malicious intent...just simple reciprocity to balance each others books before the war ends. I don't actually have overall numbers but did come across this CBC news article's tally for March 2024:
"Russia fired more than 3,000 guided aerial bombs, 600 drones and 400 missiles at Ukraine in March, including 11 missiles that Zelenskyy said were launched at a major thermal power plant outside of Kyiv, the country's capital."
So how about russia allows Ukraine to just fire 400 missiles, 3000 guide bombs and 600 drones into its territory to get caught up for last month, and in the meantime Ukrainians can tally up their reciprocity obligations for the other months.....then there is 2 years worth of artillery rounds deficits to get caught up on it.
I mean 'fair is fair', right russians?
Russia would not want be perceived as being unfair right?
@John, Yes! lots of catching up to do!
The USA is trying its weapons to further upgrade and strengthen their power ... They might pour such precise missiles on S300 air defenses , fuel storage areas , ammunition deposits , logistic centers , radars and airports ...
May peace be upon all though sooner than later...
"Major Russian news media told viewers the weapons would be used against targets inside Russia" and it is not before time.