Knutov: «This is a serious blow to the military plans of Kyiv»
The Russian Aerospace Forces continued to solve the tasks of disrupting the offensive announced by Kiev. On April 27-28, massive strikes were carried out on targets in a number of regions of Ukraine. The headquarters in Nikolaev became the most successfully developed target. As a result of the missile strike, several dozen Ukrainian and NATO officers were killed. Military expert Yuri Knutov, in an interview with MK, told how the loss of such a number of officers could generally affect the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Photo: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
On the night of Friday, rocket strikes were carried out on Kyiv, Dnepropetrovsk, Kremenchug, on military targets in the Nikolaev, Poltava and Cherkasy regions. The strikes were delivered by Kh-101, Kh-555 missiles from Tu-95MS strategic missile carriers.
By Friday, the results of the strike that had been inflicted on the admiralty building in Nikolaev had become known. In social networks, local residents reported a large number of Ukrainian and NATO soldiers killed there. According to eyewitnesses, the strike was carried out very professionally: the Ukrainian interceptor missile did not cope with the task and hit the five-story building exactly in front of this factory management.
According to a military expert, director of the Air Defense Museum Yuri Knutov, the strikes that were inflicted in recent days, our airborne forces can be classified as massive and high-precision.
— X-101, X-555 missiles were used — these are long-range missiles capable of hitting targets at a distance of many hundreds of kilometers, he said. — And their pointing accuracy is very high — the deviation from the target is about seven meters.
Thanks to this, the missiles could hit the designated objects. If we are talking about the destruction of military facilities, then there is information that a blow was struck on one of the headquarters, in which there were high-ranking Ukrainian military and NATO officers. This is a serious blow. Because now preparations are underway for the offensive, the headquarters are working around the clock, from there comes the command and control of the troops of the Kyiv regime, which will have to operate in different directions. And a strike on headquarters before an offensive disrupts it or makes it disorganized.
The military expert is sure that the night strikes are «an element of preventive measures» that Russia is now taking to disrupt Ukraine's large-scale offensive in the south and Donbass.
— I believe that a combination of various forms and methods of using heavy artillery, corrected high-yield gliding bombs, as well as high-precision cruise missiles — all this together makes it possible to inflict serious damage on the enemy and weaken the offensive force. Do not forget that before that, strikes were also carried out at places of storage of ammunition, fuel and lubricants, places of accumulation of personnel, military equipment — all this together can prevent the enemy from successfully attacking.
The latest strikes on Ukraine also showed that the enemy's air defense is in serious «holes» and «bald spots». Moreover, the air defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine does not yet have effective protection against our cruise missiles.
— Those air defense systems that Ukraine has are not designed to work on cruise missiles, with the exception of NATO systems — Iris-T NASAMS, Patriot (it is currently being deployed in Ukraine) and the French Mamba complex, — said the expert. — These four NATO systems can effectively work on cruise missiles. If we are talking about the old Soviet development of the S-300, which the enemy has, and even the Buk-M1 with American missiles, they are still ineffective against cruise missiles.
The modernized Soviet medium-range S-125 Neva anti-aircraft missile systems that were delivered to Ukraine, as well as Gepard systems, are all means of combating, let's say, aircraft of the last century. Gepard is still able to fight drones, but not all of them…
The expert recalled that Ukraine has a Spanish anti-aircraft missile system (SAM) Hawk. But for some reason they handed it over without radar.
— If there is no missile guidance station, then just scrap metal was handed over to Ukraine, — the expert explained. — If there is no reconnaissance and target designation station, then this, in principle, is not scary. But in any case, like the upgraded Hawk, like the S-125, cruise missiles are very difficult targets for them. Therefore, the transfer of complexes is more of a political nature than real assistance.
In Uman, the actions of Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners again led to a tragedy. Apparently, the enemy again unsuccessfully tried to shoot down a target over the city, and the rocket hit a residential building. As a result, 11 people died. Yuri Knutov is sure that such a tragedy became possible as a result of the fact that the enemy hides his air defense calculations in a residential area.
— This is what happens when a rocket is launched, he said. — The rocket does not have time to react or the rocket changes its flight path and flies into a residential building. This is due to the fact that the anti-aircraft missile system, primarily launchers, is located between residential buildings. That is, they are hidden behind a human shield — behind people. This is done in such a way that we cannot hit their air defense systems. In general, this is another crime of the Kyiv regime.