Putin needs now the priority to expand creeping beyond the borders of the Donetsk and Luhansk by capturing Kherson, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia regions. Lavrov just the other day said Western military equipment transfer and the supposed need to protect the occupied territories from long-range weapons as main reasons for this shift.
What and Why?
Reported maliciously in
Deutsch Welle which is the long time brethren with Tass and more recently RT is the obviously false Kremlin claim that four HIMARS have been destroyed. These claims were later refuted by Gen. Mark Milley himself, chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Milley said Russia had yet to destroy any of the HIMARS now situated in Ukraine. Yet and according to Ukrainian intelligence groups of Russian special forces have been deployed to Ukraine to focus specifically on a wild goose chase hunt for the highly mobile and precisely lethal HIMARS. Russian artillery and radars can't find 'em while Russian AF can't locate 'em either. Plus the HIMARS are out of Russian range which is the major reason Russia needs Kherson, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, ie, to get within range of HIMARS or to push HIMARS out of range of Russian artillery positions, ammo depots, fuel depots, significant railways etc. So Kremlin has a lot of butt hurt going on right now.
Late on the same day July 28th
Deutsche Welle also rushed to report that according to Justin Kramp, a military expert and head of strategic advisory firm Sibylline and that despite their early success, HIMARS are not a “silver bullet” that alone will turn the tide of the war (which while true, is good news for the bad guys that
Deutsche Welle was eager to report).
Further,
the Russia Hugging German journal Bild was quick to relay a Kremlin propaganda campaign purposed to undermine weapon supplies from Western countries. Fact is and as stated by the Russia expert
"The Kremlin needs to limit the supply of US and NATO high tech weapons by feigning threats of escalation. This disinformation activity involves politicians, experts, media personalities and organizations from various regions. They specifically push publication and analysis that claim arming Ukraine will pose a major danger for the whole of Europe (Bild, July 29). Such efforts originate mostly in Germany and France and are most likely being directly orchestrated from Moscow, or at the very least, have some link to Russian authorities." Alas, it's the two long time usual culprits,
Germany and France that no longer now can run to Putin to give him what he demands
.
Russia expert Yuri Lapaiev at the Jamestown Foundation that specializes in Russia since the Cold War says the first Gepard anti-aircraft self-propelled artillery units recently arrived in Ukraine. Lapaiev says that In truth, air defense is crucial not only for future counteroffensives but also for protecting civilians,
as 70 percent of Russian airstrikes have hit civilian objects. The Guided MLRS (GMLRS) munition with 85-kilometer range currently used by the UAF is not enough to smash all Russian military targets on the MoD list. So Lapaiev says Kyiv urgently needs ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile Systems) to liberate the southern region. He says It's safe to say sending ATACMS to Ukraine runs no immediate risk of escalation by Putin given the use already by the UAF use of its own Tochka-U short-range ballistic missiles and their 120 kilometer range.