The most massive and expensive air strike. Russia spent $1.2-1.3 billion on the missile attack on Ukraine on August 26. Forbes estimate

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1. [Google translation]

   On August 26, Russia launched its most massive air strike on Ukraine, using 127 missiles and 109 attack drones, Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk reported on Telegram. Forbes Ukraine estimates the cost of the attack at $1.2–1.3 billion, which is a record figure for the entire period of a full-scale war.

   Details

   * In total, Russia used 236 air strikes on August 26: 127 missiles and 109 attack drones. The Ukrainian Defense Forces managed to shoot down 201 targets: 102 missiles and 99 UAVs. This is Russia’s most massive air attack, Oleshchuk wrote.

   * More missiles were only launched on February 24, 2022, the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion: 160 units, according to a briefing by an unnamed senior Pentagon official. But this figure also includes short-range ballistic missiles, which may indicate that the total number of Russia’s use of tactical missiles on the front line is included.

   * Another attack of comparable scale was on December 29, 2023. Then Russia launched 158 weapons at Ukraine: 122 missiles and 36 drones, worth at least $700-750 million, according to Forbes estimates.

   * In the attack on August 26, 2024, Russia used three Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles (one shot down), six Iskander or KN-23 ballistic missiles (one shot down), 77 Kh-101 cruise missiles, 28 Kalibr sea-based cruise missiles, 10 Kh-59/Kh-69 guided air-launched missiles (a total of 99 cruise missiles shot down), three Kh-22 cruise missiles (one shot down), and 109 Shaheds (99 shot down).

   * Forbes Ukraine estimates the cost of the attack at $1.2–1.3 billion. This is the most expensive massive Russian shelling since the start of the full-scale war, according to Forbes Ukraine. For comparison, the attack on July 8, when Russia launched 38 missiles of different types at Ukraine, according to Forbes, cost it $200–250 million.
   Russia launched strikes from the Ryazan, Lipetsk, Kursk, Voronezh, Volgograd, Belgorod regions, temporarily occupied Crimea and the Mariupol area, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Kursk, Yeysk, Cape Chauda, ​​the Caspian Sea area and the eastern Black Sea.

   * As of August 20, 2024, Russia has launched a total of 9,627 missiles and 13,997 drones at Ukraine, according to data on a slide by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky, Defense Express noted. 2,429 missiles and 9,272 drones intercepted.

   Context

   In the morning and before lunch on August 26, Russia launched a massive strike on Ukraine: explosions were heard in 15 regions, there is damage to critical infrastructure facilities. NEC Ukrenergo introduced emergency power outages, and Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko called the situation in the energy sector difficult.

   To the north of Kyiv, the Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Station (HPP) in Vyshgorod was damaged. The dam is not in danger, said Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) under the National Security and Defense Council. Read more about the consequences of the attack in the Forbes Ukraine chronicle.

   Since February 24, 2022, as a result of Russian airstrikes in Ukraine, 11,879 objects have been hit, of which the majority are civilian – 6,203, military – 5,676, according to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky. The interception efficiency of cruise missiles of the Kalibr, Kh-555/101 and R-500 type against the Iskander OTRK is 66.62%, Syrsky reported on August 20. Guided missiles Kh-59, Kh-35, Kh-31 and other similar ones – 22.02%.

2. Putler was heard commenting it’s only in Russian rubles so it’s not like real money.

3. Also sponsored by **YOU**, the one who read this comment, mother ruzia must be grateful.

4. Remarkably, the strike accomplished very little.

5. Seems like an act of desperation and frustration.

6. That could have bought a lot of food and medicine. War is useless

7. Before factoring in the cost of getting around sanctions.

8. RuZZian Wunderwaffe in 2024 feels like how Germany was doing in 1944-45

9. Just to give perspective, if a “low cost” long range drone comes in a $20k, Ukraine could retaliate by matching the expense and sending … a whopping 75,000 drones. That would be 1,000 per day for 75 days. There is zero chance that Russian air defense could keep up with that. Now Ukraine doesn’t have that many long range drones, but as the armchair general I am, I really feel that they could (and should) double, triple, quadruple current efforts, and that the west need to help them get it done. Whether it means cutting up plywood with CNC machines in Germany, or sourcing scarce components by greasing a few hands or whatever it takes. This is the way to bring the war to Russia and make any attempt to defeat Ukraine by attrition futile. If they couldn’t do it with a 3 day airborn attempt, nor WW1 meatwave attacks, and finally, trying to freeze Ukraine into concessions results in same or worse freezing in Russia … maybe it is time to try the disengagement strategy … and ending the war.

   I do wonder how much Ukraine spent defending this attack, and what the dollar value of damage was. I assume it achieved little militarily, so just an attempt at destroying Ukrainian infrastructure.

10. Time to hit some russian power plants.

11. Let em burn those up and get back to their WW2 equipment. Hopefully, Ukraine goes on a blitz now. Vladimir Puken can suck it.