For those in eastern Ukraine, a nightly barrage of Russian drone attacks has overwhelmed the military’s overwhelmed air defenses, raising troubling comparisons with Western allies’ response to Iran’s air strikes on Israel this weekend.
The troops of the United States, Britain, France and other countries intervened to help Israel defend against salvoes of more than 300 Iranian drones and missiles, almost all of which were intercepted. Ukrainian officials say a similar number of aerial weapons, many of them drones designed by Iran and now produced by Russia, are launched into Ukraine every week.
Russia has launched 1,000 missiles, 2,800 drones and 7,000 guided bombs into Ukraine since the beginning of the year, said Ukraine’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya. While Washington and other allies have provided Kyiv with some powerful anti-aircraft weapons, they have not directly confronted Russian forces, and Ukrainian officials have long argued that the weapons provided are insufficient to counter Moscow’s threats.
In the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, home to 1.3 million residents and subject to nightly air raid sirens, many people expressed anger and frustration over the weekend that Ukraine’s allies, fearful of angering Russia, did not offer Ukraine the same protection as Israel.
“When a rocket flies over Israel, the whole world reports on it,” said 29-year-old singer Amil Nasirov. “Here, rockets are flying and we don’t have American bombers saving the sky like they do over Israel.”
“It’s very stupid; it’s hypocritical,” he added. “It’s like Ukrainian lives have been devalued.”
Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine has been pleading for more tools to prevent Russian missiles from entering its airspace.but the first one patriot missile system The only proven ballistic missile defense systems from the United States and Germany will not arrive until spring 2023.
Ukraine also pleads F-16 fighterThe Biden administration must approve any transfer of U.S.-made aircraft but has long resisted making them available for fear Moscow would view them as an escalation.
Attitudes eventually relented, but Ukrainian pilots are still training on the system and are not expected to fly over Ukraine until this summer.
Ukrainian officials point to the role the fighter jets play in defending Israel as a sign of their importance in air defense.
President Zelensky said the response to the Iranian attack made it clear that “the world has everything it needs to stop any missiles, Shahd drones and other forms of terrorism.” Iranian-made attack drones This is a large part of Russia’s arsenal.
“The whole world knows what real defense is. It seems that it is possible. The whole world sees that Israel is not alone in this defense – the threat in the air is also eliminated by its allies,” Zelensky said in his latest nightly address.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, explain Britain on Monday was unable to shoot down a Russian drone over Ukraine because it would trigger more violence in Europe, even though it has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest military supporters – training thousands of troops and supplying tanks and other advanced weapons. Widespread war.
“If you want to avoid an escalation of the wider war in Europe, I think one thing you need to avoid is NATO troops engaging Russian troops directly,” Cameron told British radio station LBC. “That would risk escalation.”
The United States remains the main supplier of ammunition for Ukraine’s best air defense systems. But Congress last approved military aid to Ukraine in October. In the intervening months, Ukraine’s air defenses were severely damaged, while Russia had greater success in using air power to advance its front lines, attack Ukraine’s energy grid, and cause more civilian casualties.
According to the United Nations, Russian attacks in March killed at least 126 people and injured 478 others, a 20% increase from the previous month.
Liubov Sholudko contributed reporting from Kharkov, Ukraine.
