According to reports, Volodymyr Zelensky’s Air Force pilots were able to strike without being noticed by their targets. A Russian troop is said to have heard his dismay in unopened audio footage.
The soldier said to his parents during a telephone conversation, ‘We are sitting here and listening to the chatter.
“The flak says ‘get ready, in 10-15 minutes, two jets’.”
“The next thing they say is that the strike has been carried out…
“The [Ukrainian] planes have already left.”
The conversation was intercepted and later published by the Ukrainian SBU security service, according to media outlet The New Voice of Ukraine (NV).
NV adds that the conversation suggests that Russian troops use random ammunition in their fight against Ukrainian forces.
Reports say the Russian solder noted: “We pelt them with phosphorus, cluster” [munitions].
“No care in the world.
“Everything melts here.”
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These peaked at 735 on the 21st of that month.
The numbers show that “the era of industrial warfare is still here,” according to the Royal United Services Institute.
This is problematic not only for Russia, but also for Ukraine.
All the more so as a report by Ukrainian and Western intelligence officials, seen by the Independent in June, showed that Ukraine’s armed forces are outnumbered 20 to 1 against Russia in artillery and an incredible 40 to 1 in ammunition.
A month after the publication of this report, the Financial Times asked, “Is the West running out of ammunition to supply Ukraine?”
In particular, it drew attention to the fact that the UK recently had to buy a third-party howitzer to send to Ukraine because its own stock was too low.
These signals, along with varying intelligence reports from the ground, make the overall situation in Ukraine incredibly difficult to properly assess.