The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (military intelligence – GUR MO) reported on Thursday that Russian troops intend to send Soviet-era military equipment to Ukraine to increase the intensity of shelling of Ukrainian cities.
“In order to upgrade combat capabilities, the Russian armed forces are increasingly resorting to the use of Soviet-made equipment, which has long been in storage since the 1970s. Much attention is being paid to increasing the capabilities of artillery and missile troops to conduct continuous shelling. cities of Ukraine,” the GUR reports.
According to intelligence, in April, 18 Soviet self-propelled howitzers “Msta-S” were seized from warehouses in Ussuriysk, Primorsky Krai. 28 Akatsiya self-propelled howitzers were taken from the arsenal in Omsk. Akatsiya, Msta-S howitzers and 20 Gozdzik self-propelled howitzers were also sent from the Sverdlovsk region in the Urals to the equipment base in Novocherkassk, Rostov region (bordering Ukraine). 11 Tochka-U missile systems and 15 Uragan missile systems were removed from the Irkutsk region.
Russia uses this technique because it failed to achieve its goals in invading Ukraine in a short time, according to a Ukrainian intelligence comment on the Telegram messenger.
Earlier, the FSB of Russia detained the so-called. Interior Minister of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic, General Igor Kornet. This is probably the beginning of a “cleansing” in the leadership of this structure, Ukrainian military intelligence reported on Telegram.
Even before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (February 24), there were reports of forced mobilization of men in the self-proclaimed territories of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics. The armies of both these structures are characterized by extremely low morale of soldiers and low combat capability.