Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov told Ukrainian news outlet Pravda on Monday that Russia has „at most two or three, maybe four more to spare”. Uncertainties remain regarding how many S-300s Russia is willing to repurpose as surface-to-surface missiles, he added. Danilov expressed skepticism regarding the number of those missiles are at Russia’s disposal.
„If Moscow were to expect the West to supply Western combat fighters, such as Gripens [fighter aircrafts], it might be less willing to repurchase S-300s”, William Courtney, former U.S. ambassador and adjunct senior fellow at the nonprofit RAND Corporation, noted.
Ukrenergo CEO Volodymyr Kudrytskyi told U.S.-based Voice of America that Russia has already launched more than 1,000 heavy missiles and kamikaze drones, directed at Ukraine’s electric grid and including mostly Ukrenergo targets, transmission targets and power plants.
„This makes this campaign against [the] power system the largest in human history”, Kudrytskyi said. „Nobody ever has experienced what we are experiencing now. So, of course, such a scale of destruction presumes a lot of problems. And unfortunately millions of Ukrainians are now suffering from this because millions of people are cut from electricity supplies”.
Russia’s „ultimate goal” is to cause a complete system blackout, Kudrytskyi added. He referred to „clear strategies” that inflict the most destruction, surmising that Russian military forces are being „consulted” by energy experts about which targets to identify and attack.
Meanwhile, Russia’s state-controlled United Aircraft Corporation announced on Monday the successful debut flight of an upgraded nuclear-capable Tu-160M strategic bomber, as Moscow continues to use long-range aircraft armed with missiles to bombard critical infrastructure in Ukrainian cities.
The flight of the upgraded Tu-160M bomber—one of 50 ordered by Russia’s Defense Ministry in 2015—tested the aircraft’s stability, control, and the performance of its operating systems including engines and radio-electronic equipment, UAC said in a statement carried by Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency.
The original Tu-160—NATO reporting name „Blackjack” and nicknamed „White Swan” by Russian servicemembers due to its distinctive appearance—was adopted by the Russian Air Force in 1987. As of 2016, only 16 remained in service. It was designed to compete with the American Rockwell B-1 Lancer, introduced into service one year before the Tu-160.
