#ukrainiandefense

With a range of 160 kilometers, these Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bombs launchable from U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems will enable Ukraine to boost its long-range capabilities. 🇺🇦💙💛🇺🇸

#Repost @kyivindependent_official with @use.repost . . . The U.S. is expected to deliver the first batch of new long-range bombs to Ukraine on Jan. 31, Politico reported, citing a U.S. official and three other people familiar with the matter.

The Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB) can reportedly strike at a range of 160 kilometers, expanding Ukraine’s long-range capabilities, alongside Storm Shadow/SCALP and ATACMS missiles.

According to Politico’s sources, the Pentagon has successfully tested the new long-range precision bomb for Ukraine that could arrive “on the battlefield” on Jan. 31.

An unnamed U.S. official called GLSDB “a significant capability for Ukraine,” which will allow it “to do more,” Politico reported.

The GLSDB can be launched using the U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) which have been in service in Ukraine since June 2022.

The GPS-guided bombs, co-developed by Boeing and Swedish Saab defense company, are currently not in operation in the U.S.

The delivery of the GLSDB was first announced in February 2023, with initial estimates putting their arrival in Ukraine in late 2023.

Russia claimed that it had shot down a GLSDB in March 2023, but a U.S. official then told Reuters that none of these weapons had been delivered to Ukraine so far.

📸: Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“I sincerely congratulate everyone who took part in this. A perfect result.” ~ Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary, Oleksii Danilov 🇺🇦👏💙💛🙏🇺🇦

#Repost@kyivindependent_official . . . Ukraine downed three Russian Su-34 supersonic fighter-bomber aircraft on the southern front, Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk announced on Dec. 22.

The Su-34 can carry out air strikes on targets up to 600 miles away while carrying 12 metric tons of bombs and missiles.

“The hunt for them lasted for a long period of time,” National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksii Danilov told Ukrainske Radio. “These aircraft interfered and created danger for our soldiers.”

“I sincerely congratulate everyone who took part in this. A perfect result,” Danilov said.

Radio Svoboda reported that while Ukraine did not reveal precisely where the jets were shot down, Russian military telegram channels claimed that they were downed near Krynky in Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast.

The village lies on the southern bank of the Dnipro River, which forms part of the front line.

“These are one of the newest planes in service with the Russian army,” and are used to carry out aerial bomb and missile strikes, Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said on air.

According to Ihnat, a Su-34 has not been included in the statistics of Russian losses for a long time, and each one costs “at least 50 million dollars.”

There have been multiple incidents involving the jets on Russian territory since the start of the full-scale invasion. Six people were killed in October 2022 when a Su-34 crashed into a residential building in the town of Yeysk, Krasnodar Krai, killing six people.

A Su-34 accidentally fired its ammunition on the Russian city of Belgorod in April 2023, damaging buildings and injuring two people. In September, Russian state media reported that a Su-34 crashed in Voronezh.

📸: Mihail Tokmakov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

For Ukraine, another morale-boosting update: The new completely modern missile it has developed worked flawlessly! 🇺🇦👏💙💛🙏🇺🇦

#Repost @kyivindependent_official with @use.repost . . . The Aug. 23 strike on an a Russian anti-aircraft system in Crimea used a "new, completely modern" Ukrainian missile, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, said on Aug. 26.

Danilov was speaking to Ukrainske Radio about the attack on the missile defense system in Olenivka on the northwestern tip of Russian-occupied Crimea.

The Ukrainian-made missile worked "flawlessly," he said.

The blast wiped out a Russian S-400 air defense system. According to Ukrainian intelligence, the entire system was destroyed, along with all missiles and personnel.

The S-400 anti-aircraft system could strike targets in air, on land, and at sea, and had the ability to hit aerial targets up to 250 miles away.

The day after the strike, Ukrainian forces landed in Maiak, five kilometers from Olenivka, and raised the Ukrainian flag as part of a join operation between the Navy and intelligence units.

A radar base and radio engineering troop base for the Russian Aerospace Forces, the air and space branch of the Russian military, are located near Maiak.

Intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov told Ukrainian media that he could not release detailed information on the Aug. 24 operation, but that it "had the characteristics of a raid."

An intelligence source later confirmed to Ukrainska Pravda that this was part of a "set of measures" of the same long-term operation as the strike on Olenivka.

Ukrainian forces have launched a number of successful strikes against key targets in Crimea this summer, including an attack on the Crimean Bridge.

Photo: Ukrainian Military Intelligence/Defense Ministry