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Forbes: Ukraine awaits green light to target Russia’s Voronezh Malshevo air base with ATACMS

Despite the potential to use strike drones and other tactics, Ukraine faces challenges in targeting the heavily defended base.

byOlena Mukhina

30/06/2024

2 minute read

second russian su-34 fighter-bomber downed ukrainian f-16 sources claim russia's aircraft wikipedia commons/vitaly v kuzmin 1108px-maks2015

Russia’s Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft. Illustrative image: Wikipedia Commons/Vitaly V. Kuzmin

Forbes: Ukraine awaits green light to target Russia’s Voronezh Malshevo air base with ATACMS

Voronezh Malshevo air base, a base for Sukhoi Su-34 fighter-bombers, which launch glide bombs at Ukrainian troops and civilians, is seemingly off of Ukraine’s list for now, says David Axe from Forbes.

The base is 100 miles from the border with Ukraine, while aircraft conduct airstrikes from a distance of 25 miles away or farther.

According to the Ukrainian analysis group Frontelligence Insight, a large number of jets are located at the airfield, enabling the simultaneous deployment of bombs, allowing multiple bombs to hit Ukrainian territory at once.

Ukrainian forces are capable of striking the airbase with long-range ATACMS. However, the White House hasn’t yet permitted the Ukrainian government to fire at the Voronezh Malshevo.

Another way of stopping the glide bombers is shooting down the bombers before they release their munitions. The problem is that Ukraine lacks US-made Patriots, and even if it had them, moving those systems to the Russian border would require a lot of resources for their protection.

Analyst Justin Bronk said in a new study for the Royal United Services Institute in London that Deploying F-16 fighter jets against fighter jets would also be risky due to Russia’s ground-based air defenses, and glide-bomb sorties will be very challenging to intercept regularly.

Ukraine can use strike drones to target the base, but they haven’t heavily bombarded Voronezh Malshevo due to allegedly dense Russian air defenses.

While applying all these tactics could be successful for Ukraine, the use of ATACMS seems to be probably the best option for stopping Russia’s brutal glide-bombing campaign. Currently, Ukrainians wait for permission to hit it with long-range missile systems. Meanwhile, cities and villages of Ukraine continue to suffer from Russian terror.

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