Juan Pablo Duch

Correspondent

The newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, September 19, 2024, p. 24

Moscow. While its partners are still considering whether or not to authorize the use of their long-range missiles against Russian territory, Ukraine showed on Wednesday – with its own drones – what it needs them for: it attacked in the early hours of the morning with at least six unmanned aerial vehicles a large warehouse of missiles, guided aerial bombs and artillery shells of the Russian army, located in the city of Toropets, Tver region, 460 kilometers from the nearest point on the border.

Claiming the attack as a joint operation of three Ukrainian agencies – the security service, military intelligence and army special forces – the Ukrainian media, based on self-serving leaks, claim that the warehouse, where Iskander-M and Tochka-U missiles were stored, was completely destroyedwhich cannot be confirmed.

13 people hospitalized

The authorities in Tver, at the other end, only spoke of a fire and avoided mentioning explosions. The governor of that region, Igor Rudenia, reported that 13 people had to be admitted to hospitals as a result of injuries caused by drone fragmentsbut did not clarify which sector of the city suffered the attack, while ordering the evacuation of part of its 11,400 inhabitants, who were able to return to their homes on Wednesday night.

Videos are circulating on social media in both Russia and Ukraine showing loud explosions that sound more like the detonations of shells and bombs than the impact of small drones.

Satellite images of the warehouse published by the US company Maxar – on Tuesday the hangars were seen intact and on Wednesday they were already covered in smoke – suggest that the target of the Ukrainian attack was the 107th arsenal of the Russian Army’s Main Missile and Artillery Directorate in Toropets, coinciding with the Ukrainian portal Militarny, which also published the coordinates of the attacked warehouse.

Unlike the Russian Ministry of Defense, which preferred to say nothing about this Ukrainian attack, social networks were filled with comments from indignant pro-Kremlin bloggers who attributed the operation to the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) military specialists.

In this context, the opinion of Rybar, a channel close to a sector of Russian military intelligence that is dissatisfied with the General Staff, attracted attention: We are surprised to read that today’s (Wednesday) strike against the arsenal in the Tver region was made possible by some top-secret Western advances in drones and artificial intelligence, using satellite communications and radar stations and other NATO resources. In reality, this attack is no different from those already carried out against refineries, fuel depots, airfields and other facilities..

And after stating that much remains to be done to contain drone attacks, Rybar criticizes those who They naively continue to believe that the combat zone is limited to the new regions (Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia), that the Ukrainian army lacks long-range weapons and that the drones that reach our territory far from the border are launched from the Baltic or Kazakhstan..

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky began his address to the nation tonight by thanking the military for Its long-range capability and precision and stressed that A great result was achieved last night on Russian territory; that kind of thing is what weakens the enemy..

According to Zelensky, he has already finished drafting what he calls the Plan for Victory, which, after discussions with US President Joe Biden, he is expected to make public in the context of his participation in the United Nations General Assembly.

He said that his initiative does not consider freeze conflict in any way. “There is not and cannot be any alternative to peace. There can be no freezing “We need a long-term and firm support for Ukraine and, to that extent, for Europe as a whole,” he said.