Ukraine has been promised arms assistance from European countries. Thousands of anti-tank weapons and hundreds of anti-aircraft missiles are coming. On the battlefield, Ukraine is harassing the Russian offensive column in many ways.
“We need armor-piercing ammunition,” said the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyi on the weekend. It was a response to the American offer of asylum.
Now much-needed anti-tank weapons are coming.
Even before the Russian invasion, the United States and Britain had supplied Ukraine with state-of-the-art Javelin and NLAW anti-tank missiles.
They are portable weapons used by an infantry fighter. After each shot, each is guided to the finish line itself and both usually strike their targets from above, as the armor of the wagons is thinnest on the roof.
Javelin can destroy armor within 2 to 4 kilometers. NLAW is a shorter range weapon, with an effective range of 20 to 800 meters.
Prior to their attack, the Russians unveiled welded cage structures on the turret towers that reportedly blocked the effectiveness of the anti-tank missile that struck from above. It is known that they have not had the desired effect.
Dumps from Germany and Sweden
Over the weekend, Sweden decided to donate 5,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, which have probably already been delivered. Ukraine had requested NLAW missiles, but Sweden gave older AT4 or Pansarskott 86 shells. There is no bad weapon either, as the US military has used it in Iraq and Afghanistan, for example.
Denmark promised 2,700 anti-tank weapons and Germany a thousand. The German promise probably applies to Panzerfaust 3 hammers.
“These are huge numbers, more than ten thousand missiles and projectiles,” says a military professor at the National Defense College. Janne Mäkitalo.
According to Mäkitalo, the promised number of stations will replace the number of stations already used in the battles. It will also give Ukraine a good negotiating position, because with the help of arms, it is known that Ukraine will be able to continue the struggle for a long time throughout the country.
– Promised weapons are light and can be imported quickly.
Germany and the Netherlands have also promised Ukraine a total of 700 shoulder-fired Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. Stingers have also been issued by Lithuania. Stingers are very effective against low-flying Russian fighter jets and helicopters.
Russia suffered a stock loss
Russia has suffered significant equipment losses in the first five days of the war – how hard it is not known. According to Monday’s figures from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, 151 Russian tanks and more than 800 other armored vehicles would have been destroyed.
Of course, the warring parties’ claims about the opponent’s losses must always be treated with caution. Ukraine’s own losses are also unknown.
Here are pictures of Russian defeats in Sribne in northern Ukraine.
Anti-tank missiles from the West have been effective, including the wagon in the main picture of this story being destroyed by Javelin. The losses of the Russian equipment have also been caused by indirect fire, ie artillery.
According to military professor Mäkitalo, the current data make it difficult to say how much the Russian losses have been caused by their own actions – for example, whether the carriages have moved without the protection of infantry.
– It was probably a surprise to the Russians that Ukraine’s defense worked even after the initial missile and air strikes, he says.
Videos of the losses of the Russians are constantly being uploaded to social media. This was filmed on Sunday in Bucha on the outskirts of Kiev. The vehicles are identified as Russian from the V-Direction Marking.
Ukraine also has Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones, with which, for example, Azerbaijan destroyed Armenian equipment in the Second World War. According to Ukraine, it has destroyed a dozen Russian vehicles with drones. This video strikes the BUK anti-aircraft missile:
On the other hand, Bayraktars have also been lost in the Russian air defense fire.
Impacts on the service ladder
There are several known cases in Ukraine where Russians have abandoned tanks and other vehicles when they ran out of fuel. The following video shows a Russian tanker and a tracked leash called abandoned.
Ukrainians say they destroyed 60 fuel vehicles of Russian troops. But maintaining a large army of machines and armor is challenging anyway.
Armored war consumes a lot of fuel. The self-protection and computer systems of a modern tank take up power and the machines must be kept running.
– As the Russians have advanced deeper into Ukraine, the service connections have become long. It has since been possible for the Ukrainian scouts to carry out attacks there. Their regional defense forces are equipped for just that, says Mäkitalo.
This video, published by Suomen Sotilas, shows the fate of a Russian service convoy in the direction of Kharkov.
Civilians have also taken part in the fight against armor by making fuel bottles, ie Molotov cocktails – even familiar from the Finnish Winter War. In the street fighting in Kiev, a few carriages have been set on fire with fuel bottles, but they have apparently not played a greater role.