On Tuesday, Ukraine tested its first ballistic robot, which is a robot with a higher trajectory and higher speed than those previously used, something that, among other things, Politico reported on. This means that Ukraine could fight targets further into Russia.
Now a concern can be raised in Russia, which does not currently have the ability to defend all places where, for example, you manufacture, store or fire your own robots, says Roger Djupsjö.
– If it works as they say, it could absolutely be a new and bigger threat to military industries inside Russia at a greater distance from Ukraine.
In that case, Russia must use its air defenses to protect all locations.
– It makes it more difficult for Russia to continue waging war with the airstrikes it has carried out in the past.
Cheaper to shoot down Russian weapons
For Ukraine, the use of ballistic robots can mean great opportunities: Instead of spending power on shooting down Russian robots heading towards the country, they can themselves begin to destroy Russian weapons production inside the country.
– In terms of combat economy, it is much better. So I think that they will invest in producing them at as high a rate as they can.
Criticism of the West
The fact that Ukraine is now producing ballistic robots to use against Russia is an effect of the West not providing any of them, because they do not want to “escalate the war”.
– It will be a very bad equation in the end. It costs the West so much more to give Ukraine all these missiles needed to protect Ukraine’s airspace, instead of giving Ukraine the ability to shoot them down already on the hill somewhere. There is no real logic to it.
Ukraine is highly dependent on the support from the West now, without it the war could be over in six months, Djupsjö believes.
– If the West wants to see an end to the war, the support must be so extensive that Russia understands that they do not have an opportunity to reach the same capacity, do not have the same endurance and it will cost them an enormous amount in losses to continue the war. Here is not the west yet.