Russia uses the new nationally produced Italmas drones in Ukraine, lighter, cheaper and more difficult to detect than the Iranian Shahed ones, while on the battlefield Ukraine resists the advance of the Russian forces in the northeast of Avdivka, which they cause heavy casualties.
The Italmas was presented last September by the Russian company ZALA Aero and is powered by a two-stroke engine. It has a range of more than 200 kilometers, and can penetrate into the Ukrainian rear, as it is difficult to detect and shoot down.
Several Russian media, such as Mash and Lenta, have shown videos of its supposed first use in Ukraine last Monday, although at the moment the Russian Ministry of Defense has not confirmed its use.
“The Italmas drones could be part of a broader ammunition diversification effort,” reported the American Institute for War Studies (ISW) in its daily report.
According to the think tank, with the new drone Russia intends to “diversify its arsenal of drones, missiles and guided bombs for attacks against critical Ukrainian infrastructure.”
It is, according to the ISW, a “cheaper and lighter domestically produced” alternative to the Iranian Shahed drones, used during the last winter season to destroy the Ukrainian energy system.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged this Wednesday the risk of new waves of Russian attacks against the country’s critical infrastructure and said that Ukraine “will not only defend itself, but will respond,” referring to the recent use of long-range US missiles. ATACMS range against Russian targets.
“The enemy knows this. First they withdrew the fleet from Crimea, now they move their aviation as far as possible from our borders,” he said on Telegram.
Meanwhile, the situation on the front remains tense, the president said: “In Kupiansk and Avdivka the fighting is tough, but our soldiers maintain their positions,” he said.
The most intense fighting takes place around Avdivka, in the eastern region of Donetsk, which Russian troops are trying to encircle and have made “advances confirmed” by geolocated images, according to the ISW.
This is an expensive advance: the Frontelligence Insight platform team – which analyzes intelligence data through open sources – reported that satellite images show more than 109 destroyed Russian combat vehicles.
This indicates, he affirms, that “in a week and a half Russia lost a brigade”, although the real casualties could be “considerably higher.”
According to military expert Sergey Grabsky, Ukrainian forces “are forced to retreat in some parts under pressure from enemy forces, which are significantly larger,” military expert Sergei Grabsky told Ukrainian television.
Given the “worsening situation” in this sector of the front, the Minister of the Interior, Igor Klimenko, urged the civilians who still remain in Avdivka, about 1,000, to leave.
“It is mortally dangerous to stay there, because Russian missiles destroy houses every day and bury civilians under the rubble,” he wrote on Telegram.
However, Russia does not give up its efforts to advance in Donetsk: the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, visited the command post of the Russian group in this region and tried to encourage the Russian forces by assuring that “the enemy has fewer and fewer resources.
“In the last three, four weeks, many Ukrainian servicemen have been captured as prisoners or surrendered, which speaks of the poor psychological state of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” he said.
Shoigu heard reports from the commander of the Vostok group and the headquarters officers “on the current situation, the nature of the enemy’s actions and the performance of combat missions of the Russian troops in the main tactical directions.”
