Ukraine May Run Out of Air Defenses by May – WSJ
According to classified Pentagon documents that were circulated on social media, the Wall Street Journal said on Monday that Ukraine will run out of most of its anti-air missiles by May. Kyiv has been asking for more Western air defense systems for months because it is concerned about Russian air superiority.
According to a demonstrated Pentagon show dated February 28, Ukraine is utilizing around 69 Buk rockets and 200 S-300 rockets every month, the paper point by point. It stated that Kyiv’s forces would run out of S-300 ammunition by May 3 and Buk ammunition by the end of this week.
Finding missiles for these Soviet-built platforms is difficult for Kyiv and its Western backers. In their place, Ukraine has received eight American NASAMS systems in addition to three German Iris-T anti-aircraft systems. But the document says that these systems use about 64 missiles a month, and the few missiles they have can’t cover as much territory as Ukraine’s S-300s.
Ukraine needs 16 Iris-T or NASAMS batteries and 12 Patriot or SAMP-T batteries to make up the difference, according to American military planners. Germany has pledged another Patriot battery, France and Italy have pledged one SAMP-T system, and US President Joe Biden has authorized one Patriot battery. The Wall Street Journal was informed by a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military that none of these have yet reached Ukraine.
Since last year, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has referred to this hardware his as “number one need” and has been mentioning extra air guard frameworks from the US and its partners. Zelensky and his partners have additionally argued for Western-made warrior jets like the F-16, however, the US has so far rejected them, notwithstanding the way that a few European countries have shown that they are available to the thought.
The Pentagon has not yet verified the presentation, which is one of a slew of secret documents that have been leaked and shared on social media over the past week. The other files that were leaked include the US war plans for Ukraine, the surveillance of its allies, and other “sensitive” information about terrorism, China, the Middle East, and Ukraine.
