The war between Russia and Ukraine has been going on for nearly 32 months now, and Russia has started to make some headway in the last few months thanks to new “more sophisticated” tactics it’s taking.
A report from CBS News this week revealed that Russia has started to use glide bombs much more in recent months, and it’s making a real difference.
These weapons were created using munitions from the Soviet era, and some of them even have more than 1 ton of explosives on them. The weapons have been retrofitted so they have satellite guidance systems and wings.
While they have proven cheap for Russia to produce, they’re also quite destructive.
Recently, one of these glide bombs hit a Kharkiv apartment building, according to local officials, which resulted in the deaths of 12 people, including a girl who was 3 years old.
Reporters with CBS News visited a Ukrainian Border Guard detachment whose responsibility is to search in the air for aircraft that Russia uses to launch these glide bombs. If spotted, this unit then sends warnings to nearby communities that the bombs could be on their way.
The commander of that unit, Colonel Maksym Balagura, said that each of the Ukrainian soldiers fears for their life when they are notified that a glide bomb has been deployed.
As he told CBS News:
“One can never underestimate the enemy.”
He added that now that the war is in its third year, Russia’s new tactics have become much more sophisticated.
Currently, Russia occupies about 20% of the territory inside Ukraine, including a large portion of the Donbas region in the east. Some estimates have also surmised that Russian forces have been able to gain ground recently at a rate that’s faster than at any other time during the war.
Ukraine had to withdraw troops from Avdiivka, a key city in the east, back in February after Russian forces attacked it for months.
Just this week, another city fell to Russian forces — Vuhledar — after the two sides fought over it for more than two years.
It’s possible that Russian troops may soon capture another eastern city, called Pokrovsk, which is a logistics hub in Ukraine.
U.S. officials have estimated that more than 100,000 soldiers from Russia’s side have been killed during the war thus far. Those casualty figures haven’t been confirmed by either Russia or Ukraine.
Even though there have been so many losses, Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown no signs of slowing down, even intimating that he wants to keep pressing forward and increase the intensity even more.
Reports have said that the military in Russia has plans to draft more than 130,000 additional soldiers over the next few months to support its war effort.
Ukraine has been relying heavily on support from western nations such as the United States, and if that support ever eases up, it’s likely the country wouldn’t be able to fend off Russia’s conquest.
