Russia’s new tactic aims to exhaust Ukraine’s air defense

(Dan Tri) – Ukraine admitted that its air defense system was overloaded by waves of Russian attacks targeting Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure.

Ukrainian firefighters put out the fire after a large-scale Russian raid on April 11 (Photo: Kyiv Independent).

Senior advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr. Mykhailo Podolyak, said on April 13 that Russia is applying a new tactic to target Ukraine’s power plants `with 10-12 missiles at the same time` to bypass the system.

`Our system is overloaded. Now we have to see if we can keep the system running? Do we need more air defense systems, especially against missiles?`

Mr. Podolyak said that Ukraine is urgently seeking the support of allies to better cope with the threat from Russia’s wave of attacks.

It is unclear how many Patriot complexes Ukraine has left, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the country needs 25 Patriot complexes to protect the entire territory.

Recently, Russia increased the frequency and scale of attacks on Ukrainian power plants.

The attack caused Trypilska – the largest thermal power plant in the Kiev region – to be completely destroyed.

The attack came less than a month after the company lost its Zmiiv power plant to a Russian bombing near the city of Kharkiv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the recent large-scale attack was in response to Ukraine’s raids on oil refineries inside Russia over the past few weeks.

`The attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are related to solving one of the tasks we set: demilitarization (of Ukraine). In this way, we will influence the industrial complex

Russia is dominating the battlefield in the context of the Ukrainian army lacking weapons and ammunition due to stagnant aid from the West.

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi said the situation on the Eastern battlefield `has deteriorated significantly`.

A social network account today said that Russia has controlled Bohdanivka in the Donetsk region.

Bohdanivka is less than 10km from Chasiv Yar.

`If Russia takes Chasiv Yar, they can speed up their advance deeper into Donetsk province,` said Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the US-based Foreign Policy Research Institute.