HISTORY

A Ukrainian Su-27 with an AGM-88 HARM missile underhung.

a bit further north. For several days they

attacked from different direction on the

villages east of city of Kupyansk where the

Ukrainians established a little bridgehead

behind Oskil river. The Russians deployed

the elite units equipped with T-90 tanks. All

these attacks were repelled though, thanks

to the minefields, artillery, mobile missiles, and aviation. The Russians lost tens

of tanks and three to four tactical battalion

groups. They did not relieve the pressure

on Lyman and the city surrendered in the

beginning of October. The Ukrainians reached the road connecting another two important cities, Svatove and Krmnina. In the

beginning of October there was another

successful breach in the Kherson area.

Mobilization and annexation

There was a little “earthquake” in the diplomatic and political quarters. The successful Ukrainian advance forced the Russian president Putin to declare a partial

mobilization on September 21. On March

8 in the speech to the Russian women he

stated it will never happen. The mobilization affected 300 thousand reservists with

A Ukrainian Su-25 in low flight over a highway.

the military experience and ideally possessing much needed specializations. They

were to be dispatched to the front after

receiving the resumption military training.

But as a Russian saying goes, they wanted

the best, but it ended as always. A large

number of men fled Russia since the military commissars were drafting practically everybody who they could get hold of,

regardless of the experience. And over the

time more and more cases were reported

when they sent drafted men to the front

immediately and without any training.

Consequently, Putin declared the referendums about the annexation to Russia of

four occupied Ukrainian areas – Donetsk,

Luhansk, Zaporozhiye and Kherson. It did

not matter that none of these are controlled by Russians and the fighting is still

going on in all of them. These mock referendums were completed on September

27 with the outcome predictable in advance. Neither Ukraine nor the rest of the

world honored them. At the UN General

Assembly 143 countries voted for the resolution condemning the illegal annexation.

Only five countries were against – Russia,

Belorus, Nicaragua, North Korea and

Syria. Despite this fact the Russians claim

the occupied territories belong to them and

threaten with nuclear weapons deployment to defend them.

The ongoing war in Ukraine is still conventional one and we all hope it will not escalate based on the aforementioned threats

- on the contrary, that it will end as soon as

possible. One of the things that significantly

contributed to the rapid Ukrainian advance,

and which deserves more attention are

the HARM missiles. We spoke about their

initial deployment by the Ukrainians in the

previous article. The information available

was rather sketchy though and this has not

changed since. It is clear though that besides Mig-29 fighters they are being used by

Su-27. Probably it is only a matter of installing the modified attachment points. HARM

missiles play the irreplaceable role in blinding the Russian AA defense. According to

the unconfirmed Ukrainian information in

a day they managed to destroy 10 Russian

radars. At the crucial moments of launching the Ukrainian counterattacks this

enabled more flexible deployment of the

A series of shots of the Ukrainian MiG-29UB two-seater. Although not visible in these photos, it is a “white 91” machine. Note the Spirit of Kiev emblem on the nose.

22

INFO Eduard

November 2022