Russian President Vladimir Putin poses as he delivers a New Year's address to the nation at the headquarters of the Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don
(Picture: SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)Vladimir Putin’s military chiefs have relocated long-range bombers to Russia’s far east after a base closer to Ukraine was hit destroying several aircraft, Britain said on Thursday.
The Ministry of Defence said Russia had responded to the attacks by “dispersing” the long-range planes to several airfields.
The move would further restrict the Russian president’s air campaign against Ukraine, it claimed.
In its latest intelligence update, the MoD explained: “On 27 December 2022, Oleksiyy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, reported that Russia had relocated long range aviation (LRA) Tu-95MS BEAR heavy bombers and Tu-22M3 BACKFIRE medium bombers to Russia’s far east.
“On 5 and 26 December 2022, the LRA’s Engels air base was struck and several aircraft damaged. Russia has highly likely responded to the incidents by conducting a general dispersal of LRA aircraft, especially to airfields further away from Ukraine.”
The briefing added: “The LRA will still be able to fire air launched cruise missiles into Ukraine because the weapons have a 5,000km (3,100 miles) range, in addition to the flight range of the bombers.
“However, operating from dispersal locations will add additional maintenance stress and will further deplete the limited flying hours available on these aging aircraft.”
Britain, the US, Ukraine and its allies are fighting an information war against Russia so their claims need to be treated with caution, though, they are far more believable than the propaganda and denials issued by the Kremlin.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to western allies to send tanks so his forces can step up the battle against the Russian invading troops.
Western allies have moved toward supplying armoured battle vehicles to Kyiv but not the heavier tanks it has requested.
French President Emmanuel Macron told Mr Zelensky that his government would send light AMX-10 RC armoured combat vehicles to help its war effort, a French official said on Wednesday after a phone call between them.
Britain has sent more than 200 armoured vehicles to Ukraine, and Australia has given Kyiv 90 of its Bushmaster vehicles, an armoured unit hardened against landmines and other threats.
US President Joe Biden said later on Wednesday that Washington was considering sending Bradley Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine, which is fighting Europe’s biggest land conflict since 1945.
Cities have been destroyed, millions of people displaced and more than 40,000 civilians are reported to have been killed since Russia’s invasion in February.
Putin’s army is estimated to have seen more than 100,000 troops killed or wounded, with a similar casualty toll on Ukrainian forces.
The Bradley armoured vehicle, which has a powerful gun, has been a US Army staple to carry troops around battlefields since the mid-1980s.
The US Army has thousands of Bradleys, and they would give Ukraine more firepower on the battlefield and strengthen its ability in trench warfare.
Mr Biden’s move, however, would fall short of sending the Abrams tanks that Ukraine has sought.
Kyiv has repeatedly asked Western allies for heavier fighting vehicles such as the Abrams and German-made Leopard tanks.
In an evening video address, Mr Zelensky thanked Mr Macron for the announcement and said it showed the need for other allies to provide heavier weapons.
“This is something that sends a clear signal to all our partners. There is no rational reason why Ukraine has not yet been supplied with Western tanks,” he said.
A senior US administration official on Wednesday gave a sobering assessment of fighting in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, especially around the largely ruined, Ukrainian-held city of Bakhmut. Fierce combat is likely to persist for the foreseeable future, although Russian forces have made incremental progress, the official said.
“The fighting is still quite hot ... I think what we’re seeing in Bakhmut we should expect to see elsewhere along the front that there will be continued fighting in the coming months,” he added.
In his video address, Mr Zelensky said Ukrainian troops outside Bakhmut were inflicting numerous losses on the Russians and said Moscow was building up its forces in the region.
Major General Kyrylo Budanov, chief of the Military Intelligence of Ukraine, told ABC News that he expected more strikes “deeper and deeper” inside Russia, without saying whether Ukrainian forces would be responsible.
Maj Gen Budanov said he had been “glad to see” the December 26 attack on Russia’s Engels air base, hundreds of miles from the Ukraine’s border.
Asked about attacks on Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, he added: “Crimea is part of Ukraine, it’s part of our territory. We can use any weapon on our territory.”
The United States is preparing another weapons aid package which could be announced in the coming days on top of about $21.3 billion (£17.7 billion) in security assistance so far to Ukraine.
Washington has increased the capability of the weapons it has sent including shoulder-fired Stinger anti-aircraft missiles as well as Javelin anti-tank missiles, the HIMARS rocket system and NASAMS surface-to-air missiles.
During Mr Zelensky’s visit to Washington last month, the United States pledged to send the sophisticated Patriot missile system to repel Russian missile and drone attacks.
In a signal to the West that Russia will not back down over Ukraine, Putin sent a frigate on Wednesday to the Atlantic Ocean armed with new generation hypersonic cruise missiles, which can travel at more than five times the speed of sound.
Ukraine said Russia had launched seven missile strikes, 18 air strikes and more than 85 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems in just 24 hours on civilian infrastructure in the cities of Kramatorsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
