The Times - UK (2022-03-18)

4 Friday March 18 2022 | the times

NewsNews War in Ukraine

Voznesensk, including those whose

bodies were taken by retreating troops

or burnt in their vehicles. By last Tues-

day, 11 Russian bodies were stored in the

railway carriage, with search parties

looking for other corpses in the forests.

Villagers buried some others.

“I wish I could put these bodies on a

plane and drop them all on to Moscow

so they realise what is happening here,”

Sokurenko, the funeral director, said.

The Russian operation to seize Voz-

nesensk, 20 miles from the South

Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant, was

well equipped. It began with missile

strikes and shelling that destroyed the

municipal swimming pool and dam-

aged high-rise blocks.

Helicopters dropped air-assault

troops in a ridge as a column drove from

the southeast. Velichko, the mayor, said

that a local collaborator guided the

Russians through back roads.

Ukrainian officers estimate that

about 400 Russians — mostly from the

126th naval infantry brigade based in

Crimea — were killed in the assault.

An elite Ukrainian drone unit has

destroyed dozens of “priority targets”

by attacking Russian forces as they

sleep, The Times can reveal.

Aerorozvidka, a specialist air recon-

naissance unit within the army, has

been picking off tanks, command

trucks and vehicles carrying electronic

equipment since the invasion began.

“We strike at night, when Russians

sleep,” Yaroslav Honchar, the unit’s

battle-hardened commander, said from

his base of operations in Kyiv.

Russian forces are static when night

falls, he explained, with their fear of

Ukrainian shelling forcing them to hide

their tanks in villages between houses,

Britain will deploy its Sky Sabre missile
system to Poland as part of measures to
beef up the security of Nato’s eastern
flank, the defence secretary announced
yesterday.
During a visit to Warsaw, Ben
Wallace said 100 troops would also be
sent as part of the package to help
Poland “protect its airspace from any
further aggression from Russia”.
He said: “We are going to deploy the
Sky Sabre medium-range anti-air mis-
sile system to Poland with about 100
personnel to make sure we stand along-
side Poland, protecting her airspace
from any further aggression by Russia.
This is our newest medium-range air-
defence missile and has the ability to hit
a tennis ball at the speed of sound.”
A spokesman for Boris Johnson said
the missile system was being deployed
after a request from the Polish
government and would remain under

Sky Sabre

Short to medium-range anti-aircraft

and anti-missile defence system

1 Eight missiles are

mounted onto the

launcher

2 Radar detects

enemy missile

or aircraft

3 Missiles fire in

different

directions,

hitting targets

16 miles away

4 Launch re-arms

Saab in 30 minutes

Giraffe

radar

3600

rotation *Common anti-air modular missile

Modular

launcher

Camm*

Camm*

HZ-77 heavy

utility truck

Weight 99kg

Length 3.2m

In service 2018

Warhead

Directed fragmentation

Manufacturer MBDA UK

Ben Wallace said he hoped the deployment “sends a message to the Kremlin”

Specialist drone unit

Charlie Parker knowing that conventional artillery

cannot risk hitting civilians.

But immobile convoys are the prime

targets of Aerorozvidka, which has 50

squads of expert drone pilots.

Using heavy-duty octocopter drones

— modified to drop anti-tank grenades

and to see with thermal cameras — the

darkness is their greatest advantage.

“In the night it’s impossible to see our

drones,” said an Aerorozvidka soldier,

who asked not to be named for security

reasons. “We look specifically for the

most valuable truck in the convoy and

then we hit it precisely and we can do it

really well with very low collateral

damage — even in the villages it’s poss-

ible. You can get much closer at night.”

Their fleet ranges from cheap com-

The elite drone unit Aerorozvidka posted images, left, of a marooned T-80 tank

A Kalashnikov rifle slung over his
shoulder, Mykhailo Sokurenko, a
Ukrainian funeral director, spent the
day driving through fields and forests
picking up dead Russian soldiers.
He tossed them into a freezer railway
carriage, the grim pile a testament to
one of the most comprehensive routs

President Putin’s forces have suffered

since the invasion began.

A rapid Russian advance into Vozne-

sensk, a strategic southern city of

35,000 people, would have showcased

the Russian army’s abilities.

Clinching the gateway to a Ukrainian

nuclear power station and a pathway to

Britain sends missile defences

and 100 troops to protect Poland

Larisa Brown Defence Editor the control of British forces at all times.
There are fears that Russia could decide
to strike weapons shipments coming
from western countries and stored in
Poland before being handed over to
Ukrainian forces.
“It is, as ever, a purely defensive capa-
bility which we are providing on a bilat-
eral basis to Poland,” the prime minis-
ter’s spokesman added.
The £250 million medium and short-
range air-defence system can eliminate
fighter aircraft, drones and laser-guid-
ed smart bombs. It can control 24
missiles simultaneously in flight, guid-
ing them to intercept 24 targets.
Sky Sabre replaced the UK’s Rapier
air-defence system, which had been in
service since the 1970s and was de-
ployed to the Falklands. It is unclear
how many systems the UK has, al-
though there is presently one in the
Falklands and one will go to Poland.
Described by the Ministry of De-
fence as unprecedented in speed, accu-

racy and performance, Sky Sabre was

delivered to 16 Regiment Royal

Artillery last year. It was originally due

to be operational in “early 2020”.

It comprises a common anti-air mod-

ular missile (Camm), which at 99kg

each are double the weight of Rapier

and have three times the range. They

can reach speeds of 2,300 mph and

have a range of 16 miles. Eight missiles

are mounted on the launcher, com-

pared with two with Rapier.

They can fire in different directions,

which significantly reduces the system’s

signature, making it less of a target for

adversaries. The launch also re-arms in

30 minutes, less than half the time of

Rapier. The Camm is already in use

with the French and Italians.

As part of Sky Sabre there is also the

Giraffe radar, which rotates 360 de-

grees on a mast that can extend and

scan out to 75 miles for threats. It can

track multiple targets simultaneously.

Wallace said: “I hope this sends a

message to the Kremlin that don’t

doubt us for one second. We will stand

together and stand up for our values,

and defend our friends such as Poland

from any further aggression.”

The 100 British troops will work

alongside their Polish counterparts to

build up resilience and help with hu-

manitarian issues.

Plans to send Sky Sabre came after a

western military source told The Times

that President Putin was not happy

with the pace of the invasion as set out

by his generals and told them that they

needed to go faster. Rather than tell

him his ambition was not possible, they

said they could do it, resulting in a

battle plan that was doomed to fail from

the start, analysts believe.

A western official said: “It clearly is

not going the way that Russia planned.

Not only is it not going the way that it

was planned, but even as they have

adjusted to a rather more grinding form

of warfare, that is stalling as well.”

British security and military figures

are trying to work out how long Russia

may be able to go on for, given it has

already lost thousands of soldiers and

billions of pounds worth of equipment.

Some former military chiefs believe

Russia has only ten days before it

exhausts ammunition and manpower.

The Russian strategy appears to be to

bombard city centres to try to pulverise

the resistance within them and to encir-

cle them wherever possible, officials

believe. There are fears that the more

Russian forces struggle to take cities,

the greater the chance of Putin deploy-

ing more brutal methods.

The Russians left tanks

and their dead as they fled

Odesa would have severed key com-

munications lines. Instead, the two-day

battle of Voznesensk turned decisively

against the Russians.

Ukraine’s forces of volunteers and

professional soldiers eliminated most

of a Russian battalion tactical group on

March 2 and 3.

“Everyone is united against the com-

mon enemy,” Yevheni Velichko, 32, the

city’s mayor, said. “We are defending

our own land. We are at home.”

City officials said that the Russians

left behind nearly 30 of their 43 vehicles

— tanks, armoured personnel carriers,

rocket launchers and trucks — as well

as a downed Mi-24 attack helicopter.

“We didn’t have a single tank against

them, just rocket-propelled grenades,

Javelin missiles and the help of artil-

lery,” Vadym Dombrovsky, a special

forces commander and resident of the

city, said. “The Russians didn’t expect

us to be so strong. If they had taken

Voznesensk, they would have cut off

the whole south of Ukraine.”

Ukrainian officers estimated that

about scores of Russian soldiers died in

Residents of the city of Voznesensk tell

Yaroslav Trofimov how they fought off

the invaders during a two-day battle

f