The large-scale missile attack that the Russian aggressors carried out on civilian objects on the territory of Ukraine on November 15, 2022 was the most massive since the beginning of the hot phase of the war. And its course allows us to draw some conclusions about the tactics of the Russian Federation.
First, let’s see how the events developed. According to the specified data of the Command of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in another terrorist act against the Ukrainian state 14 strategic aviation Tu-95 missile-carrying aircraft, ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and Iranian Shahed-136/131 kamikaze attack drones were involved. The invaders attacked Ukraine with 96 air- and sea-based cruise missiles (X-101, X-555 and Kalibr), guided air missiles X-59 and Shahed-136/131, Orion, Orlan-10 attack drones.
The first volley was fired at 14:20 Kyiv time, followed by two more volleys. The air alert lasted almost all over Ukraine for 4 hours, until 18:20. The blows were inflicted on almost all regional centers of Ukraine, the main target, as in previous times, was the energy sector. 15 critical infrastructure objects were hit.
10 million consumers were cut off across the country, Kharkiv region, Zhytomyr region, Kyiv region and Lviv region were the most affected. As a result of the blackout, Internet traffic in Ukraine fell by 33%. All regions of Ukraine on November 16, 2022 will turn off the lights in order to stabilize the network. The time of power supply restriction will be increased.
But not only Ukraine suffered. During the G20 summit in Bali, the Russians once again proved that they are real terrorists, and that this war has long gone beyond the borders of Ukraine. Two missiles fell on the territory of Poland, people died. In addition, the attack on Ukraine led to massive blackouts in Moldova.
Air defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down 75 cruise missiles (X-101, X-555, Kalibr), two X-59 guided air missiles, 10 Shahed-136/131 drones, one Orion UAV and one Orlan-10. That is, if we talk about cruise missiles, air defense destroyed almost 80% of targets, and this is actually a very good result, which says a lot about the professionalism of the Ukrainian military, as well as about the echeloned air defense system, which has already been deployed over Ukraine thanks to the means provided by Western partners. It is not at all a fact that the air defense of NATO countries would have achieved a better result in the conditions of such a massive volley.
Such volleys are likely to be the main tactics of the terrorist country at the next stage of the war. Only a mass launch of missiles can ensure a breakthrough of at least a part of them everywhere in the umbrella of Ukrainian air defense, which will become even denser with each day and with each new modern means of air defense.
And here it becomes interesting how much time Russia needs to prepare such a massive volley. The previous really large-scale missile attack on civilian infrastructure took place on October 10-11, 2022. On October 10, more than 80 missiles were launched, on October 11 – 28 more missiles. That is, a total of 112 missiles.
The next conventionally large attacks were not so massive. On October 22, 2022, 33 cruise missiles were launched, on October 31 – 50 missiles. In the first case, air defense destroyed 18 missiles, in the second – 44 missiles.
In order to accumulate missiles for a really large volley, which, according to some faulty Russian logic, was timed for the G20 summit, a terrorist country that is already experiencing a shortage of high-precision meansiv lesion, it took two weeks. It seems that this is the time needed by the enemy to move missiles from storage sites, concentrate them at airfields and load them onto ships, develop and program flight routes, maintain, train aircraft and pilots, and so on.
In addition, stocks of missiles are running out, and the production of new ones has slowed down somewhat due to sanctions. According to the American Institute for the Study of War the Russians have likely used up much of their remaining precision weapons systems and will have to slow down their campaign against critical Ukrainian infrastructure.
Another important conclusion of the attack on November 15, 2022 is that the Russian leadership is not really looking for ways of a peaceful settlement, and all their accusations about possible negotiations with Ukraine are ordinary Russian lies, as Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said. The new attack showed it to the whole world.
“Here is the answer from Russia – for Indonesia, India, China and all other countries that said that the war should be ended. Russia is telling the world that it wants to continue. The answer is now up to the world,” summed up President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi during his evening address.
And it seems that we will all feel the consequences very soon. Several countries have already announced the provision of additional air defense and other military assistance to Ukraine.
Any blackouts there will not break Ukraine, except that they will make us angrier and lead to even greater support for the Armed Forces. Ukraine will win!
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