Can Russia be Pushed Out of Ukraine Entirely?
Is Foreign Secretary Liz Truss' ambition to push Russia out of the whole of Ukraine realistic? Retired Air Vice Marshal Sean Bell explains why it might not be.
He said getting military equipment and artillery into Ukraine was key, but it needed to be the right kind of equipment and not hardware which requires years of training to operate.
When I was at school we had a retired physics teacher who explained the system used in the First World War of which he was one of the operators for the purpose of artillery fire control. They had an array of platinum hot wire microphones hooked up to a chart recorder and thus able to determine from the time difference of the sound of the explosions reaching the microphones, its distance and the direction. They would plot the location of the German artillery from this and the where fire they returned landed, so as to adjust their guns to achieve a direct hit on the German artillery
The artillery the US is providing to Ukraine isn't from the 1950s, it's M777s which are brand new or M198s which are from the 1980s. The French Caasar 155 SPGs are also new and the Dutch PzH 2000s are the best mobile artillery systems in the world. All of these systems can shoot a lot further than 10 miles.
HiMARS with their full range missiles would be equivalent to supplying aircraft. This system has a range of 190 miles with pinpoint accuracy. With several types of munitions from anti personal, armor to hardened bunkers this weapon is extremely militarily effective. It has the ability to take out artillery, troop staging areas as well as deap logistical support. With drone support there is really not much more air power can add to combat effectiveness, particularly when effective anti-aircraft systems are present.
I think his analysis on a possible new front from Transnistria is wrong. It's not only 1500 Russian soldiers, they have been recently resupplied to around 6000-7000, and there is a large arms warehouse. This would result in some Ukrainian forces relocating to the Moldovan border to protect the open field Ukrainian territory there and weaken its eastern and southern fronts overall.
