Fact Check: Is NATO Weaponry Superior to Russian Arms in Ukraine?
18:38 GMT 05.07.2023 (Updated: 08:57 GMT 23.07.2023)
© Sputnik / MIkhail Turgiyev / A US M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle (IFV)
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Ukraine provides a unique testing ground for NATO-grade weapons. According to Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov, they have by far proven better than Russia's arms. Is this true?
The Financial Times' latest piece claims that Western weapons delivered by the US and its NATO allies and partners to Kiev have been performing excellently on the battlefield. By way of illustration, the op-ed compared NATO-grade weaponry to Mercedez-Benz, and Russia's arms to an outdated Soviet-era car.
As if that were not enough the authors of the article included an already debunked claim that Ukraine's MIM-104 Patriot, a US-made surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, managed to intercept the Kinzhal hypersonic missile. According to the newspaper, Kiev has already downed over a dozen of these.
The outlandish claims and the triumphant tone of the article demonstrate that it's nothing but a PR stunt aimed at entertaining Western readers while Kiev's well-advertised counteroffensive stalls, according to Russian military expert Viktor Litovkin.
"In reality, we see that the Patriot is destroyed," Litovkin told Sputnik. "The vaunted air defense system is destroyed with a single blow of the Kinzhal. Five batteries were destroyed at once, the radar station was destroyed. [Many] Leopard tanks were destroyed by our gunners, our pilots, and helicopter pilots. The Americans are afraid to send their Abrams because they understand that they too will be destroyed by Russian artillery, Russian helicopters, and Russian troops. M777 howitzers are generally 'crap'. They can't handle the intensity of the gunfire. Well, and so on and so forth. One can enumerate many types of military equipment that have shown themselves, to put it mildly, not in the best way on the territory of Ukraine," he said.
Litovkin is by no means surprised why Reznikov is hailing Western weapons: the Ukrainian defense minister needs more and more equipment, otherwise he would have nothing to fight with: "He has no other choice but to bend before the West and praise Western military equipment," the Russian military expert noted. "However, the crux of the matter is that [Reznikov] cannot boast of any real victories on the battlefield."
How Kinzhal Destroyed US-Made Patriot
The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced that Ukraine's Patriot system had been hit and destroyed by the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missile in Kiev on May 16. Video footage emerged online purportedly showing Russia's Kinzhal strike. It demonstrated the Patriot crew's vain effort to down the hypersonic weapon by firing over three dozen missiles.
In the video, the extremely dense work of the batteries of the American MIM-104 Patriot air defense system can be seen. As soon as the air defense system runs out of missiles, a powerful explosion occurs at the place where the launches were made. The Western mainstream media had to admit the strike but rushed to claim that the US-made system had not been completely taken down, but only "damaged." However, it was clear that just one strike made the Patriot non-operational.
Have NASAMS Helped Ukrainians on the Front Lines?
Two NASAMS medium range air defense systems, were first delivered to Ukraine in October 2022. All in all, the Pentagon promised to provide Kiev with eight NASAMS systems and an unspecified amount of ammunition.
It was reported that the estimated completion date would be November 28, 2025. There is little evidence to suggest that the two NASAMS systems provided to Ukraine by the US have offered much of a boost on the battlefield, especially given that one of them was destroyed by Russia in early February.
With an effective firing range of about 30 km, the NASAMS is meant to primarily target enemy drones, aircraft and cruise missiles. According to Russian military experts, the limited number of NASAMS does not allow Ukrainians to shield their troops. Presumably, the air defense system was meant to provide cover for the other US-made weapons systems, such as the HIMARS battery.
27 June 2023, 19:16 GMT
Are British Storm Shadows and US HIMARS Invincible?
Reznikov is not the only minister exaggerating the successes of NATO-grade weaponry in Ukraine. Last week, UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace asserted to British lawmakers that Storm Shadow missiles given to Kiev have had "a significant impact" on the battlefield. The Storm Shadow is a long-range cruise missile boasting a striking range in excess of 250 kilometers (155 miles).
However, as of yet, Storm Shadows have made some splash by hitting Russia's Chongar bridge on the administrative border between the Kherson region and Crimea, but have failed to anyhow tip the balance in Kiev's favor on the military theater. Following the Ukrainian military strike on the bridge, the Russian armed forces destroyed a depot with Storm Shadow cruise missiles in Ukraine's Khmelnitsky region, as per the Russian Ministry of Defense. According to Sputnik's interlocutors, the Russian military regularly shoots down the British wonder-weapon.
Likewise, Russian forces frequently intercept missiles launched by the US-made M142 HIMARS, light multiple rocket launchers. As per the Russian MoD, the Ukrainian forces often use HIMARS against civilian areas of the regions joining the Russian Federation last year.
"Kiev is trying to compensate for its inability to ensure success on the ground through terrorist attacks on civilian targets and thus achieve a propaganda effect," Sergei Shoigu noted on July 3.
Have Leopard Tanks and Bradley IFVs Proved Effective?
Ukraine's losses in terms of military equipment caught the headlines after the beginning of the well-advertised counteroffensive. Russia destroyed 16 German-made Leopard tanks, i.e. 100% of the vehicles supplied to Kiev by Poland and Portugal, the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced on July 3.
Earlier, on June 26, the New York Times admitted that at least 17 out of 113 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles had been damaged or destroyed in the fighting so far. All in all, Russian forces managed to destroy some 920 Ukrainian armored vehicles in Donbass and in Zaporozhye regions last month, as per Shoigu.
© Sputnik
Commenting on the issue, Litovkin referred to the superiority of Russia's tanks in the Eastern European battlefield.
"We have T-72, T-80, T-90 tanks, which are head and shoulders above any Western tanks," the Russian military expert said. "For instance, we have three crew members and an automatic loader, while none of [Western tanks] have an automatic loader. And they have a loading fourth crew member, who has to load the gun during the battle, when the tank goes forward and sways on the uneven ground. Their tanks are 3 meters high, and ours are 2.2 meters high. Their tank weighs over 60 tons while ours is 46 tons, and so on. When it comes to the caliber: we have 125mm, and they have 120mm. On top of that our tank can fire not only shells, but also laser-guided anti-tank guided missiles."
© Sputnik
Earlier, Sputnik's interlocutors drew attention to the fact that the military theater with its frozen, river floods, mud, swamps and other critical weather conditions became a serious challenge for the NATO military equipment. The Ukrainian military has faced a plethora of logistical problems, including that the German 60-ton battle tanks could not cross some of Ukraine's bridges.
As of July 5, the Russian military had destroyed 10,535 tanks and other armored fighting vehicles belonging to Ukraine since the beginning of the special military operation. The Russian MoD also rubbished an assessment recently made by UK Admiral Sir Tony Radakin about Russia losing "half of its combat effectiveness and some 2,500 tanks in Ukraine."
"The FT-published estimates of the losses of Russian armored vehicles by UK Admiral Radakin, coupled with the alleged loss of ‘half of its combat effectiveness’ by the Russian Armed Forces. It is characterized by the universal scale of lies," the ministry said, adding that Radakin's claims stemmed from the latter's desire to receive more funding to purchase new military equipment for the UK armed forces to replace the equipment delivered to Ukraine.
How is the Ukrainian Counteroffensive Going?
The most glaring proof that Western weapons don't surpass their Russian analogs is that the Ukrainian military has so far failed to outperform on the ground. Furthermore, the Kiev regime's forces have sustained heavy losses in terms of both equipment and manpower, Litovkin pointed out.
"In two weeks of fighting in the Zaporozhye and Krasnolimansky direction, in Avdeevksky direction and Artemovsky direction, we destroyed 259 [Ukrainian] tanks, including Western-made ones," the Russian military expert said. "We have smashed 700 armored fighting vehicles; [lots of] unmanned aerial vehicles. Does this mean anything? Whose technologic advantage does this speak of? Secondly, it also speaks of the advantage of our professionals, masters of our military art. Given all of the above, all this chatter about the advantage of Western technology and the advantage of the Western army is just [propaganda] for those Ukrainians and Westerners who have been brainwashed by their press."
