Ukraine is facing an invasion from the east. The second biggest country on our continent with an area of nearly 604 thousand square kilometers is being conquered by the Russian army from several directions. The breadbasket of Europe has been turned into a giant warehouse of military equipment of all kinds.
Due to their shared history, both sides are using similar technology from the Soviet era. Howitzers, for example, often face each other, which differ only in the varying degrees of modernization and, most importantly, the much-publicized markings on Russian vehicles.
While Russia (so far) dominates the skies and wins in destructive missile power and quantity, the Ukrainian defences are nevertheless bolstered again by anti-aircraft and anti-tank small arms complexes from the West, Turkish drones and, undoubtedly, by military intel from NATO and the US. Let’s take a look at some of these weapons in the following few chapters.
Among the flood of shared material from the front, Web analysts also found photos of some advanced self-propelled anti-aircraft systems, including the Buk series. One of them, in fact, became infamous back in 2014 when it shot down Malaysia Airlines civilian flight 17 in eastern Ukraine.
Russia has also brought more advanced versions of the Buk-M1-2 or even the Buk-M2 to Ukraine. Some most likely became a welcome snack for the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 fighter aircraft from our opening gallery. In any event, the wide range of missiles for the Buk will destroy a target up to 25 kilometers in altitude and 50 kilometers in range, depending on the design.
Among other systems, Ukraine has Tor-M2, 9K35 Strela-10, 9K33 Osa or 5P85D launchers for S-300PS missile systems.
Discussion about this post