Pro-Russian telegram channels announced a new Ukrainian missile. The Crimean bridge falls into the zone of its defeat

Ukraine could hit the Russian military air base in the occupied Crimea with a Grom-2 missile from the Odessa region. About this with reference to the pro-Russian telegram channels “Rybar” and “Military Chronicles” writes «Agency».

Telegram channels call this the first likely use of such a weapon. The new Ukrainian-made missile is capable of hitting targets within a radius of up to 500 km, which means that Ukraine can fire from its territory, in particular, on the Crimean bridge.

In the Simferopol region of Crimea, near the village of Gvardeyskoye, where the Russian airfield is located, air defense intercepted an object on Saturday, the pro-Russian telegram channel TalipoV Online reported on Saturday. He posted a video of the explosion crater, suggesting that the attack was carried out using a Soviet Tu-141 Strizh drone.

Too large a funnel – up to five meters deep, may indicate that the “handicraft” explosive device installed on the “Swift” is unlikely to have worked, they write in a joint analysis of “Rybar” and “Military Chronicles”. These telegram channels suggested that the Ukrainian Armed Forces could have used Grom-2 for Saturday’s attack, launching a rocket from the area of ​​the village of Tuzla in the Odessa region. From there to the place of attack 320 km. It is the Grom-2 missile with a warhead of 480 kg that is capable of leaving a five-meter-deep funnel, propagandists conclude.

According to the channels, until February 2022, Ukraine tested Grom-2, but they were not successful . Development accelerated after the start of the Russian invasion, according to Rybar and Military Chronicles.

Military analysts interviewed by the Agency believe that Ukraine is capable of building missiles with a range of up to 500 km, such as Grom-2, but they have no information whether they have already been put into service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

< p>In Ukraine there are factories, development centers and specialists for creating such missiles, for example, design bureaus in Kharkov and the Yuzhmash rocket-building enterprise in the Dnieper, military expert Yuriy Fedorov told the Agency. “I think that in the current circumstances in Ukraine they are trying to restore everything that was developed in the USSR or in the post-Soviet era,” he said.

To create missiles with a range of 500 km, two problems must be solved: to develop a guidance system that interacts with the satellite, as well as a uniformly burning solid fuel. If the second problem is not solved, then the rocket will either explode or fly in the wrong direction, Fedorov says. “It is impossible to say that this is an unsolvable task for Ukraine. Ukraine has been and remains a highly developed scientific and industrial country, no less developed than Russia, and in some categories of weapons even more developed – «Yuzhmash» was the best rocket science enterprise. Therefore, such weapons are most likely being developed,” says Fedorov.

OSINT analyst, US Army veteran Henry Shlottman notes that so far there is no evidence that the Grom-2 has been put into service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In his opinion, it is more likely that the airfield in Gvardeisky was attacked by a Tu-141 Strizh drone. Nevertheless, he says, Ukraine has anti-ship missiles in service with a possible range of up to 300 km, including the Neptune and some types of Harpoons. They can be used against ground targets, Shlottman says.

International Crisis Group Europe and Central Asia Program Director Olga Oliker told the Agency that, according to her information, the Grom-2 program “did not reach the final stage and weapons are not yet included in the Ukrainian arsenal.”

“Of course, if Ukraine has these weapons, they will influence military operations and will be used against Russian military forces both on the territory of Ukraine and on Russian territory,” Oliker said.