Putin deploys new war plan against Ukraine – ISW
ISW analysts report that Vladimir Putin is changing his war strategy against Ukraine due to stagnation on the front line. The Kremlin is shifting focus from ground assaults to massive combined missile strikes, allocating about $12 billion to produce jet-powered drones, including new Geran-5 models. Ukraine is preparing a symmetrical response, testing interceptor drones.
Analysts at the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) report in a fresh assessment that Vladimir Putin is being forced to reconsider his war strategy against Ukraine due to a lack of significant gains on the ground front. The Kremlin is shifting focus from costly infantry assaults to a massive campaign of long-range combined strikes, attempting to break Ukraine's resistance during the autumn-winter period. To implement this strategy, according to the Ukrainian side, about $12 billion is planned to be allocated for the production of jet-powered drones and loitering munitions. New jet models, such as the Geran-5, are increasingly used for strikes on major Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, Odesa, and Mykolaiv. Even Russian military bloggers acknowledge the vulnerability of this tactic due to its enormous financial burden. The Ukrainian side is actively preparing to repel the winter air campaign: in September alone, defense forces neutralized over 1,500 of the 2,730 recorded kamikaze drones, maintaining a shootdown rate of 55% for jet targets. Simultaneously, the latest interceptor drones have been tested, and their mass deployment is expected to allow the destruction of high-speed jet drones on approach to targets.