PARIS: The long-range rockets that Moscow says the United States has delivered to Ukraine could be a strategic asset for Kyiv against Russian troops in coming months, analysts say.
\nRussia on Tuesday said it had for the first time downed a ground-launched small-diameter bomb (GLSDB), a munition that can fly up to 150 kilometers (93 miles).
\nKyiv has not confirmed the delivery, but the US Defense Department in early February said it would ship over the rocket-propelled precision bombs as part of a fresh arms package for the country.<\/p>\n
Western nations have rallied to the side of Ukraine since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of its neighbor on February 24, 2022, dispatching all manner of weaponry to help.
\nBut until now, Ukrainian forces could only strike some 80 kilometers behind the frontlines thanks to US high-precision HIMARS rockets.
\n\u201cThe HIMARS had already forced the Russians to reorganize their command and logistics, either by rendering them more discreet near the frontline or by withdrawing them 80 kilometers beyond it,\u201d said Leo Peria-Peigne of the French Institute of International Relations.<\/p>\n
Now faced with the far longer-reaching GLSDB, the Russians will have to move almost double the distance away from the frontline, and do so \u201cwith an already limited fleet of vehicles,\u201d Peria-Peigne said.
\nThe new deliveries also mean Russian-controlled shores of the Black Sea are now within firing range, complicating supply deliveries to the troops by sea.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the UK defense ministry said it had since February 21 recorded at least 14 explosions around the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol, more than 80 kilometers from the frontline.
\n\u201cRussia will likely be concerned that unexplained explosions are occurring in a zone it had probably previously assessed as beyond the range of routine Ukrainian strike capabilities,\u201d it said.
\nProduced by Boeing and the Saab Group, the GLSDB can hit a target from any angle within one meter, Saab says.
\nIt was tested for the first time in Sweden in 2015, Boeing says on its website.
\nBut its real trial will come in Ukraine.
\n\u201cIt will be the first real-time, massive use of this weapon, which will test its performance including in terms of precision,\u201d Peria-Peigne said.
\nKyiv on Monday said it had received modern Leopard and Challenger battle tanks from Germany and the United Kingdom, but the French expert said the long-range rocket offered more potential.
\n\u201cFifty tanks, even if they are the best in the world, will hardly have a strategic impact, but that is not the case for 10,000 GLSDB \u2014 if they live up to their promise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ivan Klyszcz, a research fellow at the Estonia-based International Center for Defense and Security, was more tempered in his predictions.
\n\u201cThe introduction of new systems \u2014 such as GLSDB \u2014 might change the dynamics on the battlefield in one direction or another,\u201d he said.
\nBut \u201cright now, for Ukraine and Russia, the war effort comes down to manpower and artillery shells. The EU agreement to deliver one million shells to Ukraine strikes me as more consequential in that sense.\u201d
\nThe 27-nation bloc has agreed a plan aimed at supplying Kyiv with one million artillery shells over the next 12 months.
\nBut Western allies often take a long time to agree to deliver the weapons that Ukraine requests.
\nKyiv has, for example, long been begging for fighter jets, but has only so far secured a promise of 17 Soviet-design MiG-29 jets \u2014 13 from Slovakia and four from neighboring Poland.
\n\u201cIt takes time for politicians and decision-makers to form coalitions to approve new arms deliveries,\u201d said Klyszcz.
\nMany have initially been reluctant, fearing an escalation that would lead to a more direct confrontation between NATO and Russia.
\nMilitary aid to Ukraine \u201cis becoming politicized in some countries,\u201d with some Republicans in the United States for example increasingly questioning the deliveries.<\/p>\n
But, said Peria-Peigne, Moscow can do little except protest.
\nDespite veiled threats that he will unleash a nuclear weapon, Russian President Vladimir \u201cPutin cannot attack… another country as he is already struggling to beat Ukraine,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cAnd he cannot attack NATO as he knows he will lose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS: The long-range rockets that Moscow says the United States has delivered to Ukraine could be a strategic asset for Kyiv against Russian troops in coming months, analysts say. Russia on Tuesday said it had for the first time downed a ground-launched small-diameter bomb (GLSDB), a munition that can fly up to 150 kilometers (93 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-322976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n