Bombing "most of Ukraine" costs Russia nearly $1.3 billion a day | Foreign media observation
2024-08-27
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On August 26, Russia launched its largest bombing campaign against Ukraine in weeks.
The Associated Press quoted a senior Ukrainian official as saying that within 12 hours that day, 15 regions in Ukraine were attacked by Russian drones and missiles.
Ukraine has a total of 27 first-level administrative regions, including 24 provinces, two special cities (Kiev and Sevastopol) and one autonomous republic (Crimea). Crimea and Sevastopol are currently under Russian control, and parts of the territory of another five provinces are controlled by Russia.
15 regions were attacked, which means that "most of Ukraine" was attacked by Russia on this day.
The Associated Press also reported that due to the large scale of the attack, Ukraine's neighbor Poland and NATO's air defense systems in Poland were also "activated" and put on alert to prevent any accidents.
What was the main goal of this massive Russian attack?
Russia's TASS news agency reported that Russia attacked Ukrainian energy facilities with precision weapons systems, saying that these energy facilities played an important role in Ukraine's military operations.
According to news from Ukraine, some power stations and other energy facilities in Ukraine were severely damaged in the bombing, resulting in power outages in many areas. Some electricity and gas companies took emergency measures and limited supply at regular intervals, which had a great impact on the lives of Ukrainian people.
The Ukrainian side also said that six Ukrainians were killed and more than a dozen were injured in the bombing.
So, how much did this massive Russian bombing cost? Ukrainian Pravda has compiled statistics on this.
According to the newspaper's statistics, Russia used 109 drones and 127 missiles of various models in this attack.
In terms of price, drones are slightly cheaper, with 109 drones valued at approximately $21.3 million.
The prices of the various missiles used by Russia this time vary greatly. The cheapest one is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, while the most expensive one is the Kh-101 missile, which is worth 13 million dollars.
After a relatively detailed statistics, Ukrainian Pravda concluded that the Russian attack cost a total of US$1.26 billion.
In the face of Russia's attack, Ukraine's response mainly consists of two points.
On the one hand, they condemned Russia's "brutal bombing". Zelensky and Ukrainian officials accused Russia of being extremely brutal and inhumane in its indiscriminate bombing of Ukrainian civilian facilities.
On the other hand, Ukraine has stepped up its calls on the West to ease restrictions on the use of weapons against Ukraine.
The Kyiv Post reported that Ukraine believes that the top priority is to ask the United States to agree as soon as possible to Ukraine's use of the "Storm Shadow" long-range missile to attack deeper and farther targets within Russia.
The "Storm Shadow" missile was mainly developed and manufactured jointly by the United Kingdom and France, but because some parts are produced by the United States, Ukraine must obtain the consent of the United States if it wants to use this missile to attack Russia.
But the United States has not given in yet.
The Kyiv Post reported that Ukraine now believes that only by striking deep into Russian territory, especially against targets near central cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, can Russia feel the impact of the war and agree to negotiate.
Therefore, Ukraine has stepped up its demands for US approval to use Storm Shadow missiles to attack Russian targets.
However, judging from the current situation, if the United States openly agrees to Ukraine’s call, it may greatly stimulate Russia and may lead to further deterioration of the situation.
Therefore, the United States may continue to maintain a cautious attitude.
Text丨Qian Kejin, international commentator of Yangcheng Evening News
