Due to delay in military aid from US, Russian attack aircraft are approaching front line - Forbes

3 months ago
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Due to the blocking of US aid to Ukraine, Ukrainian air defense systems began to run out of missiles to repel Russian attacks. As a result, some Russian fighters can fly much closer to the front lines and attack with short-range missiles rather than 25-mile glider bombs. Forbes writes about this.
The publication recalled how recently, during fierce fighting on the edge of Chasovoy Yar, four Su-25 attack aircraft of the Russian Air Force fired at Ukrainian positions at low altitude from a distance of only a few meters from them.
It is noted that Russian air raids targeting Chasiv Yar have dialed up the pressure on the city’s garrison, which includes the 67th Mechanized Brigade and, closest to the edge of the city, the 23rd Infantry Battalion.
Back-to-back Russian assaults on the 23rd Battalion’s positions dearly cost the Russians, but at least a few Russian troops have entrenched along the outermost city street, Zelena Street. “Urban combat operations may soon begin in Chasiv Yar,” the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies noted.
Forbes says that a shortage of artillery shells—a crisis Ukraine’s European allies are scrambling to resolve—is the biggest problem vexing the Chasiv Yar garrison. But a shortage of air defense ammunition is a close second.
It doesn’t help that Russia has escalated its air raids on Ukraine’s biggest cities, compelling the Ukrainian air force to concentrate its best air-defense batteries around these cities. That leaves gaps in front-line air defenses. Gaps the Russian air force is exploiting.
These gaps will get bigger as air defense ammo runs low. “If they keep hitting Ukraine every day the way they have for the last month, we might run out of missiles,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned .
The U.S. Speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Johnson, has pledged to hold a belated vote on fresh U.S. aid to Ukraine potentially this month. A successful vote could pay for the Pentagon to speed more air defenses to Chasiv Yar and other besieged front-line cities.

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