Mar. 2—Though Russia is widening its attack on Ukraine, things are not going as US intelligence had predicted and that's what is perplexing the experts as to what Russia has up its sleeves. A senior US defence official told Reuters that from the first six days of Russia's offensive against Ukraine, it seems that Russia is not willing to take high risks with their own aircraft and pilots.
Russian President Vladimir Putin authorised a special military operation on Ukraine on February 24. Analysts expected that the Russian military would immediately destroy Ukraine's air defence.
In an article titled The Mysterious Case of the Missing Russian Air Force, a think-tank said that it remains a mystery why Russia launched this huge military campaign but not using its airforce.
"These initial stand-off strikes followed the pattern seen in many US-led interventions since the end of the Cold War. The logical and widely anticipated next step, as seen in almost every military conflict since 1938, would have been for the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) to mount large-scale strike operations to destroy the UkrAF," the article said.
Rob Lee, a Russian military specialist at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told Reuters that many of Russia's actions are confusing. "There's a lot of stuff they're doing that's perplexing... Because every day it goes on there's a cost and the risk goes up. And they're not doing that and it just is really hard to explain for any realistic reason," he said.
David Deptula, a retired US Air Force three-star general told Reuters that probably Russians are now discovering that they are not as good as they presumed they were. "The Russians are discovering that coordinating multi-domain operations is not easy," he said.
(With inputs from agencies)
___
(c)2022 the Hindustan Times (New Delhi)
Visit the Hindustan Times (New Delhi) at www.hindustantimes.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
