On February 16, the Russian occupation forces launched a massive missile attack on the territory of Ukraine, in particular on critical infrastructure facilities.
According to the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the enemy launched 32 air and sea-based cruise missiles in Ukraine. The forces and means of the Air Force destroyed 14 Kh-101/Kh-555 and Kalibr cruise missiles and two Kh-59 guided air missiles. Several Kh-22 cruise missiles reached their targets, hitting critical infrastructure.
Aleksander Kovalenko, a military observer, draws several important conclusions in the context of this information.
"Firstly, the presence of Kh-22 missiles in large quantities, which were not used on February 10, suggests that the Russians can accumulate them in a separate article. That is, being the current air defense of Ukraine a practically un-interceptable element, it can be brought into a different category of strikes.
Secondly, the accumulative potential of combat kits amounted to 4-5 per day (we do not consider Kh-22, because of a separate category), which indicates the return of the accumulative potential of combat kits by the occupiers to the autumn figures of 2022. This may be due to adjusting the supply of contraband elements for production."
Separately, Kovalenko mentioned the use of surveillance balloons with corner reflectors by Russia. According to the expert, this may be part of the adaptation of the Russians to increase the effectiveness of their strikes: "After all, due to data, primitive and very cheap objects, they not only distracted our air defense but also revealed its location."
“I won’t be surprised if, as part of kamikaze drone raids, these balloons will also be used to increase the raid's effectiveness by diverting the attention of air defense systems. That is, today’s strike was more experimental than ordinary,†Kovalenko said.
The expert predicts that the Ukrainian air defense will adapt to these new tricks of the enemy, draw the appropriate conclusions and improve the indicators of both response and counteraction. "But the Russians, switching to balloons with pieces of iron, this is just like a statement of the degradation of technological thought," Kovalenko stated.
