Ukraine receives air defence methods as Russia continues air strikes

Ukraine has acquired its first Nasams air defence methods from the US and Aspide items from Spain, as Russia continues its missile and drone strikes on electrical energy infrastructure which have triggered blackouts nationwide.

“Nasams and Aspide air defence methods arrived in Ukraine!” Oleksiy Reznikov, Ukraine’s defence minister, mentioned in a tweet on Monday. “These weapons will considerably strengthen Ukraine’s military and can make our skies safer.”

He added: “We are going to proceed to shoot down the enemy targets attacking us. Thanks to our companions: Norway, Spain and the US.”

Nasams are a short- to medium-range surface-to-air missile defence system developed collectively by Kongsberg of Norway and Raytheon of the US.

The Aspide system made by Italy was supplied to Kyiv by Spain.

The methods’ arrival comes weeks after Ukraine acquired Iris-T air defence missile methods from Germany, the primary such subtle equipment supplied to Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion greater than eight months in the past.

Ukraine has lengthy known as for contemporary Nato commonplace air defence methods to guard its civilian infrastructure, as its troops push again towards Russian forces occupying greater than 15 per cent of its territory in its jap and southern coastal areas.

The US is working with its allies to find as many methods and as a lot ammunition as attainable.

“There’s work ongoing to determine how a lot could be produced and how briskly, not only for US methods, however for different methods as nicely,” mentioned a US defence official.

Kyiv’s want for extra and higher air defence methods comes as Russia has stepped up its aerial bombardment of crucial Ukrainian infrastructure to make up for its stalled floor marketing campaign.

Moscow is utilizing precision-guided missiles and swarms of Iran-supplied Shahed 136 kamikaze drones that may carry a warhead of as much as 40kg. Though Ukraine has destroyed the vast majority of the incoming drones and missiles, sufficient have made it by to take out greater than a 3rd of Ukraine’s electricity-generating capability over the previous month.

About 4.5mn Ukrainians are with out energy, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned in his nightly tackle on Sunday.

Analysts cautioned that with out higher air defence, hundreds of Ukrainians might freeze this winter.

“With rolling blackouts already affecting a lot of the nation and the climate already getting chilly, the urgency of those necessities is tough to overstate,” army specialists Justin Bronk, Jack Watling and Nick Reynolds argued in a report revealed on Monday by the Royal United Providers Institute.

They mentioned the west wanted to provide Kyiv with extra shoulder-launched Manpad surface-to-air missiles and radar-guided anti-aircraft weapons equivalent to Germany’s Gepard to shoot down the Iranian drones. Ukraine additionally wants western fighter jets equivalent to Swedish Saab Gripens to consolidate its territorial beneficial properties, the report added.