Russia attacked railway facilities in three different regions across Ukraine on Thursday night and Friday morning, as the country’s defense minister vowed to step up strikes aimed at slowing the flow of critically needed American weapons and equipment to the front.
The latest attacks on the rail network came after Russia’s defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, promised to target Western weapons as they arrived in Ukraine. “We will increase the intensity of strikes on logistics centers and storage bases of Western weapons,”
US authorizes Ukraine to strike Crimea with long-range missiles.
The United States has authorized the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) to hit facilities in Crimea with long-range ATACMS missiles that were recently transferred to Kyiv, senior Pentagon officials have told The New York Times.
The goal of the ATACMS strikes would be to put "more pressure on Crimea," the Pentagon official said.
In addition, ATACMS can be used to strike behind Russian lines in other occupied regions of Ukraine.
Crimea bridge, get ready????
ATACMS missiles won’t help Ukraine win
The ATACMS missiles capable of striking targets at a range of up to 300 kilometers recently supplied by US to Ukraine will not help the Kiev regime tilt the battlefield in its favor, said Andrey Koshkin, a veteran Russian academic specializing in military and international affairs.
“Of course, Kiev needs to actively tout these weapon shipments in the media and boast about possible achievements for propaganda purposes,” Koshkin remarked. “But these missiles won’t help change the situation at the frontline for simple reasons. Firstly, there are not many of these missiles, and this technology is unusually complex for the Ukrainian forces, so they won’t be able to use them widely. Secondly, it remains to be seen whether these sporadic strikes will manage to bypass Russian defenses. Thus, there are too many “buts” for these missiles to be used successfully.”
According to him, these missiles will likely be used for terrorist strikes against civilian infrastructure deep within Russia’s territory, despite US’ claims of restricting Ukraine from such use.
He also observed that while the regime in Kiev has announced plans to hit the Crimean Peninsula and the bridge across the Kerch Strait, Russian forces have already demonstrated their ability to intercept such missiles.
“We have excellent Buk-M2 and S-300 [air defense] systems that are capable of dealing with these missiles, quite successfully at that,” Koshkin said.
NATO SNOWFLAKES?
NATO Chief (Snowflake) Jens Stoltenberg called the demonstration of NATO equipment in Moscow a "hybrid aggression" by Russia!
“Everyone knows that the North Atlantic Alliance is not a party to the conflict, but the demonstration of equipment in Moscow creates the impression of not only NATO’s participation in the conflict, but also the defeat of the alliance in this conflict."
🇷🇺 More trophies on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow!
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) April 26, 2024
- M777 howitzer
- American armored vehicles "HMMWV M1151" and "HMMWV M998"
- a British armored ambulance AT105 "Sakson"
- an armored vehicle "Husky TSV"
- an Austrian vehicle "Pinzgauer 712M"
- a French wheeled tank "AMX-10RCR"
-… pic.twitter.com/F0F2deQuUn
"Russia should not demonstrate equipment as if they had already won.” Stoltenberg continued.
Elsewhere . . .
The China Foreign Ministry issued a blunt statement publicly: "NATO is directly responsible for the conflict in Ukraine"
AND;
For the past 48 hours:
A large NATO air activity has been recorded in the Black Sea.
The Russian think tank, Rybar, revealed that there was extensive use by Ukraine of DECOYS, which with the help of NATO surveillance aircraft, mapped the location of every air defense system in Crimea.
In summary, the following happened in the last few days:
-Increased NATO air activity
-ADM-160 MALD missile launches towards Crimea
-High-intensity aerial photography operations of the Crimean surface.
The number of Recon aircraft durations has doubled compared to the average, indicating possible preparations for new attacks.
