For several weeks, neither Ukraine nor Russia have been able to report any major advances at the front. From a Russian point of view, this is apparently already a success: Chief of Staff Gerasimov speaks of a stabilized front line – and an ace up the Russian army’s sleeve.
Despite several defeats in the war of aggression against Ukraine, the military leadership in Moscow considers its own positions in the occupied territories to be solid after the most recent mobilization. “Taking into account the measures taken to strengthen the combat effectiveness of the troops, the situation along the front line has stabilized,” Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov told foreign military attachés.
Accordingly, the front currently has a length of 815 kilometers. Overall, Russian troops hit “more than 1,300 critical targets” in Ukraine, explained the chief planner of the Russian attack. This has “significantly reduced the combat potential of the Ukrainian armed forces”. The information cannot be independently confirmed.
According to Gerasimov, the focus of the Russian military is currently on the “liberation” of the Donetsk region. In fact, the fiercest fighting is currently taking place around several suburbs of the industrial city of Donetsk and the small industrial town of Bakhmut in the north of the region. According to the 67-year-old, the Ukrainians are suffering high losses there.
The chief of staff put the western arms deliveries at a value of 100 billion dollars. Nevertheless, the Ukrainian air defense is helpless against the Russian hypersonic missiles of the type “Kinzhal” (“Dagger”), claims Gerasimov. He noted that the Russian hypersonic missile will be used in Ukraine for the first time in combat conditions.
The Kremlin likes to advertise the penetration capability of its hypersonic missile, which was first tested in 2018. It is shot down at high altitude by MiG-31 fighter jets and, according to Russian sources, can hit targets up to 2,000 kilometers away. The “dagger” is said to be several times faster than the speed of sound and capable of attacking at more than 6000 kilometers per hour. According to NATO, such missiles can hardly be intercepted with conventional air or missile defense systems.
It is unclear how many “Kinschal” Russia has already used in the attack on Ukraine, or whether any are still available for use. In March, a video showing a successful airstrike by the hypersonic missile on a Ukrainian ammunition depot was revealed to be fake. The Ukrainian leadership is currently assuming that the Russian missile stocks are only sufficient for a few attacks. According to British intelligence, Russia is already firing aging cruise missiles that have had their warheads removed.
According to official information, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was at the front while Gerasimov was present in Moscow in front of the foreign military attachés. Just a few days ago, the authority reported that the minister had made an inspection trip to the front after he had not been in the combat zone for months. However, independent media subsequently found that on this trip, Shoigu had only flown over defense systems in Crimea, which Russia has annexed since 2014 and is 80 to 100 kilometers away from the front.
The nationalists in Moscow, on whom the Kremlin relies, have recently criticized Russia’s political and military leadership for being too passive. It is striking that, unlike Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has so far not visited any soldiers at the front. Mockers gave him the name “Bunker Grandpa”.
