Russia has probably fired off more rockets and missiles in its blitzkrieg of Ukrainian cities than planned, and as a result, it may be resorting to using “older, less precise weapons,” putting civilian lives at risk, the United Kingdom’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
Delays in achieving military objectives in Ukraine and a failure to control the airspace could be contributing to a Russian shortage of more modern air-launched munitions and the use of “less militarily effective” ones, according to the British Defense Ministry.
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https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1504226935106330628?s=20&t=x7DDe420SdumfFdY_G26vwThe Pentagon estimated that Russia has fired at least 900 missiles since the war began on Feb. 24.
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But after more than 20 days of war, Russia’s aerial and ground assaults have failed to weaken Ukrainian defense forces’ resistance to the invasion significantly or topple the Ukrainian government.
Civilian targets, however, appear to be bearing the brunt of the bombings.
The latest United Nations estimates indicate that 1,900 civilian casualties, including 726 deaths, have occurred in Ukraine, with the true casualty figure likely to be significantly higher.
A theater in Mariupol, Ukraine, serving as a shelter for civilians was “purposefully and cynically” struck by a Russian bomb Wednesday, according to its City Council. The council described the attack as “genocide of the Ukrainian people.” The number of dead and injured is unknown.
Christo Grozev, an investigator with Bellingcat, a global investigatory platform, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday that Russia is responsible for “more than 350 incidents that have caused harm to civilians,” including the bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol and a missile strike on a Kyiv TV tower that also hit a nearby Holocaust museum.
The capital city of Kyiv has been besieged by heavy shelling this week, with Russian forces hitting residential apartment buildings, among other targets.
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Kyiv regional leader Oleksiy Kuleba said that “kindergartens, museums, churches, residential blocks, and engineering infrastructure are suffering from the endless firings” as Russian forces try to cut off transportation links in and out of the city.
The U.N. said the number of people fleeing Ukraine has passed the 3 million mark.
