Ukraine needs air defence to protect its defence industry - ISW

Ukraine needs air defence to protect its defence industry - ISW

ISW assesses that developing a defense industrial base over time could allow Ukraine to maintain its defenses against Russia and meet long-term national security needs with a significant reduction in foreign military assistance. But now this requires Western air defence.

This was reported by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Ukrainian officials have expressed intentions to expand Ukraine’s defense industry at home and abroad since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that providing Ukraine with Western air defense capabilities would be a critical element of Ukraine’s ability to defend its defense industry, which in turn would reduce Ukraine’s dependence on Western aid and especially US aid to Ukraine in the long term.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently stressed that Ukraine cannot mitigate the problem of not having enough air defense systems and that only air defense systems provided by the West, namely Patriot systems, will allow Ukraine to defend itself against an intensified strike campaign from Russia.

ISW continues to assess that the US will not need to send large security aid packages to Ukraine indefinitely if Ukraine can sufficiently expand its defense industrial capabilities. But providing air defence systems and missiles to Ukraine is critical to Ukraine’s ability to shield its energy infrastructure and its defence industry from Russian attacks.

Key ISW findings for April 12:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged that Russia’s campaign of strikes against Ukrainian energy facilities is partly aimed at destroying the Ukrainian defense industry, confirming ISW’s current assessment that Russian strikes against Ukrainian energy facilities are aimed at degrading Ukrainian defense industrial capabilities.
• ISW continues to assess that development of Ukraine’s defence industrial base (DIB) over time could allow Ukraine to maintain defenses against Russia and long-term national security needs while significantly reducing foreign military assistance.
• The Russian military is domestically producing and using a new subsonic air-to-surface cruise missile called the X-69 against Ukraine as part of an ongoing effort to improve strike capabilities and penetrate Ukraine’s degraded air defense system.
• Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it stopped a group of Central Asians from carrying out a terrorist attack against a Russian military facility in occupied Ukraine, likely as part of attempts to create information conditions to portray any future Ukrainian attack on legitimate Russian military targets in occupied Ukraine as "terrorist" attacks
• Russian troops recently confirmed offensives near Avdiivka and Donetsk.
• It is reported that Russia is sending about 2,400 troops from the Eastern Military District (EMD) currently in Russia to fight in Ukraine to compensate for the loss of personnel at the front.
• Russian occupation officials continue to expand educational programs aimed at educating Ukrainian children and destroying their Ukrainian identity.