Director of the Moscow Center for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, Ruslan Pukhov, who is close to the Russian Ministry of Defense, bleakly assesses the capabilities of the Russian armed forces, saying that they do not have modern aircraft, tanks and artillery.

“If we talk about weapons of the new generation, then, unfortunately, there are practically no fifth-generation fighters in the Russian armed forces. The latest model of our Su-34 bombers belongs to the “4 plus” generation. In addition, we lack modern high-precision weapons and modern targeting equipment,” says Pushkov.

“This further reduces the effectiveness of these types of bombers, who are forced to either use unguided bombs at altitudes accessible to the enemy’s MANPADS, or they are forced to abandon troop support operations altogether,” he explained. In addition, numerous videos of Russian attack aircraft and helicopters using unguided bombs and missiles appeared on social networks.

The Russian arms industry has great difficulties in the production of state-of-the-art missiles due to Western sanctions on the export of electronic components to Russia.

Russian tanks, successors of the Soviet tradition

Pushkov then goes on to assess Russia’s ground forces, saying that currently the army that Vladimir Putin sent to Ukraine on February 24 uses mostly modernized third-generation tanks.

“The Armata combat vehicles of the new generation still cannot be put into service. Even our most modern tank at our disposal, the T-90, is a modified version of the obsolete T-72 tank. Simply put, the T-90 is a “tuned” Soviet tank. Therefore, the requirement that they successfully counter the latest Javelin, NLAW or Matador anti-tank systems is not entirely correct,” the Russian military analyst explains.

He also talks about a paradoxical situation: the Soviet Union was the first in the world to invent an active defense complex (KAZ), but it was not implemented in any of the tank models of the Russian Armed Forces:

“It’s a shame, of course, because the experience of combat operations in Ukraine has shown that today a tank without a KAZ cannot survive on the battlefield at all.”

“At the same time, the Israelis equipped their tanks with active protection systems and the Americans began to install them in their tanks, but we did not. Therefore, I have a big question for the leadership of our armed forces and the leadership of Uralvagonzavod (the main Russian tank factory), he added.

A Russian military analyst compares the situation in Ukraine to gladiator battles, where “one fights with a short sword and a shield, and the other with a trident and a net”, noting that the Ukrainian armed forces are mainly made up of infantry and artillery, while the Russians use armored vehicles, “which are not equipped with modern, really effective protection.”

T-90M tank at the May 9 parade on Red Square in Moscow (PHOTO: Dreamstime)

Personnel problems for the army that Putin sent to Ukraine

Further, Pushkov states that the Russian army has big problems with the number of infantrymen, because “the front line is large, and there are not enough people participating in special operations”:

“Conventionally speaking, the Ukrainians are on the defensive, they have a lot of infantry and artillery. We must break through the undermanned front line with vulnerable tanks and armored vehicles. Now the Russian side is trying to solve this problem in Donbas with a large amount of artillery, but, as you can see, things are going very slowly.”

Ruslan Pushkov also argues that the Russian armed forces currently do not have enough troops to effectively advance in more than one direction, and that the war in Ukraine has shown that the Russian Airborne Forces, one of Moscow’s elite units, is rather a “poor man.” infantry”:

“Their aluminum armored fighting vehicle is generally easy to hit, and they have fewer other weapons at their disposal than motorized infantry.”

The British Defense Secretary, in an assessment of the war in Ukraine published at the end of May, noted that Russia’s air force had suffered some of its heaviest losses since the “special military operation” began on February 24, being at the center of high-profile failures. for example, regarding the capture of Gostomel airport near Kyiv.

Russian artillery missed the “revolution” brought by drones

“It is also necessary to remember that the Ukrainians have been actively training their military for 8 years. They spent almost all of their infantry in Donbas and actively used artillery. We used our artillery very limitedly, mainly in Syria or during military exercises, they were in a combat situation. Therefore, their gunners are more experienced,” Ruslan Pushkov also states.

He also says that the Ukrainian military has learned to use old Soviet weapons alongside commercial drones, and that the use of small unmanned aerial vehicles has revolutionized artillery operations.

“We actually missed this revolution and now we have to make up for lost time on the go. The military special operation once again confirmed the thesis that it is possible to launch hundreds, thousands of unguided projectiles, which are cheap, but all this firepower is leveled by two guided missiles that can accurately hit the target,” says Pushkov.

“Two missiles, despite their high cost, will solve more problems than thousands of unguided munitions. Old conventional rockets do not cause significant damage to the enemy, especially if he is in deep trenches or hiding in cement bunkers. This is a new confirmation of the triumph of high-precision weapons,” the Russian military analyst emphasizes.

“Actually, to put it bluntly, World War I methods don’t work, especially if you don’t have an infantry advantage over the enemy. The combination of modern reconnaissance equipment (in particular, unmanned aerial vehicles) and a large number of high-precision weapons could solve the problem of positional strengthening of the enemy’s front – but this is exactly what we lack,” he explains.

Ukrainian artillery at the front (PHOTO: Twitter)

HIMARS systems are clearly superior to those in service with the Russian Armed Forces

Answering the question about the arrival of American salvo fire systems in Ukraine, Pushkov reminded that the Soviet systems used by both Russian and Ukrainian troops, with few exceptions, do not have a range of more than 20-25 kilometers.

“Also, we have a lot of 122mm howitzers, which normally only have a range of 13 kilometers. Modern Western artillery has a longer range and is mainly about 155-millimeter howitzers, which can hit targets at a distance of 40-41 kilometers,” he says.

“Unfortunately, the problem of the USSR, and then Russia, lagging behind the West in terms of artillery range has been known since the 1980s,” says Pushkov, recalling that until now Western countries sent modern long-range equipment to Ukraine “in homeopathic doses.” “but their number is growing.

“Therefore, during an artillery duel, Ukrainian systems will be able to destroy our batteries, and Russian counterfire simply will not reach the target,” says the Russian analyst.

“This problem becomes particularly acute in connection with the start of deliveries to the Armed Forces of Ukraine of the KHIMARS salvo fire systems and the M-270 rocket salvo fire systems, which have high-precision GSP-guided GMLRS missiles with a range of up to 85 kilometers.”

Founded in 1997, the Center for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies is an analytical center on military and security issues headed by Ruslan Pushkov, known for its close relations with the Russian Ministry of Defense. The interview he gave was translated by the staff of the WarTranslated site.

Pushkov’s comments came against the backdrop of a growing number of Russian military analysts fearing the continuation of the “special forces operation” in Ukraine, with one of the main concerns being the Ukrainian-acquired HIMARS systems.

Follow the latest events of the 166th day of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HOTNEWS.RO.