Footage of a Russian missile attack on the Dolgintsevo airfield in the Krivoy Rog region.
The strike destroyed one ukranian MiG-29 fighter and damaged two attack aircraft.#UkraineWar pic.twitter.com/WyLpbW65E1
— Johan Andersson (@halsamorsan) July 4, 2024
Video shows Ukraine fighter jet destroyed on the ground by Russian missile.
By David Sole
The Heads of State of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will hold a summit meeting in Washington July 9 – 11, 2024. The 32 member military alliance “will reaffirm that Ukraine’s future is in NATO, [and] will make significant new announcements about how we’re increasing NATO’s military, political and financial support for Ukraine” according to a “senior U.S. official speaking to Reuters News Agency.
This perspective follows last month’s meeting between President Joe Biden and Ukraine’s President Zelensky in Europe where Biden pledged to bolster Ukraine’s proxy war for the next 10 years.
All indications from the battlefront in Ukraine are that Ukraine’s military is continuing to be degraded. On numerous front lines Ukraine is in retreat and is suffering a shortage of troops, military equipment and especially air defense.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported July 5 that “NATO leaders will vow to pour weapons into Ukraine for another year.” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg revealed that his organization’s members “have been spending around $43 billion each year on military equipment since the war began in February 2022.”
Air defense in Ukraine is in an especially weak state. Superior Russian air power including jet fighters, drones and missiles have successfully exhausted Ukraine’s supply of missiles as well as advanced anti-aircraft missile batteries. On June 29 Reuters reported that the US Army has awarded a “$4.5 billion contract to produce Patriot air defense missiles.” Lockheed Martin is being paid big bucks to produce 870 Patriot missiles. It is unlikely, however, that this increase in production can be delivered in the near term to make a difference.
To try to fill the gap pending production increases the US is arranging for the Israeli entity to send eight Patriot batteries to Ukraine at a time that the Zionist state is trying to protect itself from rocket attacks from both Gaza and southern Lebanon.
A headline in the New York Times on July 4 explained that European officials “are trying to scrape together a Patriot battery from spare parts scattered across the continent.” Parts of the system are coming from the Netherlands, Germany and ‘as many as eight [other] countries.”
Ukraine is also awaiting the delivery of F-16 fighter jets from the Western nations. Ukrainian pilots have had some training to fly these jets but many doubt that they will be effective with limited experience. Ukraine’s small air force came in for a serious beating when Russian Federation drones and missiles attacked two forward military airfields.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that in one attack five of Ukraine’s Su-27 fighter jets were destroyed at the Myrhorod Air Base in Kharkov province, not far from a new front opened up by Russia in that region. Another attack on another base destroyed several other MIG-29s in the small Ukrainian air force. These successes on July 4 by the Russians against Ukraine’s air fields bodes ill for the day when F-16s finally arrive.
An issue that may also face the NATO allies in Washington, D.C. is Russia’s threat to confront the US and NATO aerial spy drones flying off the coast of Crimea over the Black Sea. While the drones are over international waters Russia has accused them of being used to guide and direct ATACM missile attacks. These long range Ukrainian missiles have been supplied by the US and are probably operated by US military personnel in Ukraine,
On June 23 Russian air defenses shot down five ATACMs in Crimea. Fragments from one missile hit a beach in Sevastopol, reportedly killing 5 and injuring 150 civilians. According to the Kyiv Independent “Moscow’s defense minister has ordered the Russian army to develop measures to deal with what the ministry called ‘provocations’ from U.S. strategic drones.” There is an increasing “risk of ‘direct confrontation’ between Russia and NATO.”
Unwilling to recognize that their proxy war by Ukraine against Russia is facing military defeat, the US and NATO show no willingness to allow Ukraine to open negotiations for peace. That leaves only endless military expenditure and ever growing danger of escalation that will draw the Western powers more directly into the conflict.
Be the first to comment