In a few weeks Ukraine may face blackout without powerful air defense – Austrian colonel
Ukraine may find itself in total darkness without the deployment of a powerful air defense system that could protect the infrastructure from Russian missile strikes.
This opinion was expressed in an interview with the German channel ZDF by Colonel of the Austrian Armed Forces, military expert Markus Reisner.
According to him, after nine months of full-scale war, the West must realize that “the Russians still have capabilities that we have underestimated so far”. As an example, he cited the aggressor’s use of cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and Iranian drones.
– We have been telling ourselves for months that the Russian Air Force almost never flies on missions, or that Russian missiles have a very low probability of hitting. But now reality has caught up with us,” the military officer said, commenting on the strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
Reisner explained that Ukraine’s task is to protect important areas by means of air defense. However, the colonel sees several problematic issues here. According to him, Russian aviation destroyed part of the Ukrainian air defense system at the beginning of the full-scale war, and later the Armed Forces of Ukraine used air defense systems to cover their attacks.
And now our state lacks air defense systems to protect the entire territory. As Reisner noted, the size of Ukraine’s territory and “the large number of objects that need to be protected make it almost impossible to do something about it.”
– If a powerful air defense is not deployed here, Ukraine will plunge into complete darkness in a few weeks, because critical infrastructure will no longer work, – said Markus Reisner.
The colonel added that in this situation Europe has limited opportunities to help. As the military explained, while Russia has been preparing for this war for months, maybe even years, Europe has been disarming its armed forces for 20 years, and now it is trying to provide the front in Ukraine with a length of about 1.1 thousand km “with the few that it has”.
According to Reisner, in order to change the situation, it is necessary to increase the capacity of weapons on a large scale. And the European military industry needs state guarantees.
The colonel clarified that Ukraine has made progress at the operational level, but the Russian Federation conducts “strategic attacks”, leaving Ukrainians without electricity, heat and water. Reisner gave an example of the recently liberated Kherson.
– The fact is that Russia has so far managed to maintain the momentum at the strategic level, and this momentum means that when the Russians decide, there will be a wave of attacks against Ukraine, – concluded the colonel.
According to Ukrainian intelligence forecasts, Russia will need at least a week to prepare for another massive missile attack on the territory of Ukraine.
The previous massive missile attack took place on November 23. As a result, significant damage was caused to the energy infrastructure of Ukraine. As of November 28, emergency power cuts are still applied in our country.
It is possible that a new Russian missile attack may take place this week. A missile carrier, which can carry eight Kalibr missiles, has been put on alert in the Black Sea.
Source: ZDF