In dozens of help packages for 35 months, and counting, of the widest war of Russia opposed to Ukraine, the management of former US president. Joe Biden provided the Ukrainian army more than 10,000 guided missiles anti -javelina or ATGMs.
The $200,000, shoulder-fired missile, guided by an infrared seeker over a distance farther than two miles, packs a 20-pound warhead that can destroy or at least immobilize any tank. Ukrainian stocks of Javelins peaked in 2022, according to one Russian blogger.
But “they still have enough,” the blogger added—and the missiles are proving to be a major obstacle to the Russian effort to eject Ukrainian forces from the 250 square miles they occupy in western Russia’s Kursk Oblast.
The 60,000-strong Russian-North Korean force in Kursk tends to attack on foot owing to a growing shortage of modern armored vehicles. But when it does mount a mechanized assault, Ukrainian missile teams armed with Javelins are waiting just past the outermost lines of mines and tiny explosive drones. “At the front line, our tanks are targeted by ATGMs,” the blogger complained.
“As a result, our tanks can only work from hidden positions,” explained the blogger. In other words, they are almost in their planned role: close and penetrate the enemy directly.
Ukraine air attack juggling groups can be the maximum notoriously bloody missiles in the 800,000 kyiv military. But in Kursk, missile shooters also come with units of naval and special operations.
In the span of two days recently, a single Javelin team from the Ukrainian 36th Marine Brigade destroyed three enemy tanks and four BMD-4 fighting vehicles in Kursk, according to the defense ministry in Kyiv.
The 5th Regiment of the Special Forces of the National Guard of Ukraine threw from the javelins at night. “Even under the canopy of the night, the Russian occupants hide,” said Wartranslate, Estonia.
The Russians have their own anti-tank missiles in Kursk—and plenty of them. “The only area where we are relatively adequate is with ATGMs,” the blogger reported. But with only a few exceptions, the Ukrainians have been on the defensive in Kursk since August. Their vehicles don’t have to break cover, approach the front line and expose themselves to Russian missiles.
They are the Russians whose few surviving armored cars are destroyed disproportionately through mines, stretch marks . . . and javelins.
Possibly it would not last. Unless and until New American Pres. Donald Trump is sending more javelins, the 10,000 missiles Biden has allowed Ukraine to run out. But it’s a bloodless convenience for the Russian tank groups that are now being blown up.
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