Even as Ukrainian officials celebrate the arrival of more advanced western air-defence systems and claim growing success at shooting down Russian rockets and drones, they are warning that Moscow is on the hunt for new long-range weapons against which Kyiv’s forces have little defence — specifically, ballistic missiles from Iran.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force said the Kremlin had plans to buy Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar ballistic missiles from Iran, which the Ukrainians say will almost certainly be used to continue to target civilian energy infrastructure that has already been battered by barrages of attacks in recent weeks.
“We have information that they achieved some agreement on delivery,” the spokesman, Yurii Ihnat, said at a news conference on Monday.
Iran has denied plans to sell ballistic missiles to Russia. But Major General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s defence intelligence directorate, has said delivery of Iranian missiles could happen by the end of November.
“It’s a serious threat because Iranian missiles, unlike Russian ones, are quite high-precision, very high speed, and those features have been battle-proven,” he said in a recent interview with the War Zone, an online publication focused on military matters.
Ukrainian officials have declined to disclose details about the number of missiles Russia may be seeking to acquire. But Ihnat said Ukraine was in discussions with its Western allies over how to counter the threat.
“It is theoretically possible to shoot them down, but it is actually very difficult to do this with the capabilities we have at our disposal today,” he noted.
One possibility would involve destroying ballistic missiles at their launch, he said.
But for that, Ukraine would probably need longer-range weapons of the type that the US and other allies have so far been reluctant to provide, fearful that Ukraine could use them to hit military targets inside Russia and possibly escalate the conflict.
The missiles Moscow is seeking to acquire from Iran are similar to the Iskander missiles that Russia has used since the outset of its invasion in February. Western military analysts and Ukrainian officials say Russia is turning to Iran because its stocks of Iskanders have been severely depleted.
Russia has other weapons at its disposal, including Kalibr cruise missiles and Iranian-made attack drones. Ukraine has gotten better at shooting those down, employing portable air-defence systems, attack jets and a mix of Soviet-era air defences and newly arriving western systems.
New York Times News Service
Key influencer back in Russia
New York: Russian state media reported that a polarising social media influencer who has dabbled in opposition politics has returned to the country after her unexpected flight raised fears of a new crackdown.
Ksenia Sobchak, who once challenged President Vladimir V. Putin at the polls but also has at times appeared to accommodate his agenda, unexpectedly left Russia late last month after police searched her home and arrested an executive at her media company.
On Monday, Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported that Sobchak had returned through a land crossing with Latvia. The report, citing unnamed witnesses, could not be independently verified. Sobchak did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(NYT)
