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Ukraine’s large-scale deep-strike operations targeting Russian ammunition depots show that, despite Russia deploying an extensive air defense network, they continue to struggle with Ukrainian drones.
That’s according to a report by the British Defense Ministry citing intelligence data, Ukrinform reports.
“Overnight on 20-21 September 2024, Ukrainian forces struck Russian ammunition depots at Tikhoretsk in Krasnodar and another site at Toropets in Tver with UAVs. This followed a previous successful strike at another depot in Toropets on 18 September that almost certainly destroyed at least 30,000 tons of ammunition in open and bunker storage,” the report recalls.
The UK military assesses that the strikes “will almost certainly cause, at a minimum, short-term disruption to Russian artillery and small-arms munitions supplies, critical resources in a war of attrition dominated by mass fires”.
The total tonnage of ammunition destroyed across the three sites represents the largest loss of Russian and North Korean supplied ammunition since war-start.
“These major strikes in quick succession demonstrate that, despite Russia deploying an extensive layered air-defence posture (including fighter jets) surrounding Ukraine, they continue to struggle against Ukrainian UAVs employed in deep-strike operations into Russia,” the British defense ministry noted.
It is highly likely this will force further dispersals in the Russian logistics chain for fear of additional strikes, increasing the burden on an already stretched system, the report concludes.
The Defense HQ also released satellite images of the sites of Ukrainian strikes in Toropets and Tikhoretsk.
As reported earlier, Estonian intelligence believes Ukraine’s strikes on ammunition depots in Russia, especially the one on the missile depot in Toropets, may affect the battlefield situation as early as October.
