Forbes: Strike On Toropets Can Become A Turning Point In The War
- 19.09.2024, 9:49
The arsenal could contain stocks of much more powerful and rarer weapons.
On September 17, early in the morning, a large “flock” of Ukrainian drones flew to the north of Ukraine to Toropets, a city in western Russia in the Tver region, and attacked the 107th arsenal, the large ammunition depot supplying Russian troops fighting in Ukraine. The result was a large-scale explosion, which was visible from space and which provoked an earthquake of 2.8 points. Now experts around the world are wondering what the Russian Armed Forces stored there. And they make assumptions. Forbes reported.
According to the Ukrainian analytical group Frontelligence Insight, 122 mm missiles, 82 mm mortar bombs and 7.62 mm ammunition for rifles and machine guns were stored in the arsenal.
But it is also possible that the arsenal contained stocks of much more powerful and rarer weapons.
Official sources said the stockpiles included S-300 air defence missiles and Iskander and KH-23 ballistic missiles — the latter produced by North Korea. The Russians use all of the above missiles to attack Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure.
The fact that so much of Russia's best ammunition was reportedly concentrated in one place explains why Ukraine has committed such large forces to the attack. More than 100 drones were involved, potentially making the Toropets raid the largest Ukrainian strike on a target inside Russia since Russia launched a full-scale war.
“Without exaggeration, this is a very significant achievement. Probably, we are talking about the loss of thousands of tons of explosives, shells and missiles," OSINT researchers told Frontelligence Insight.
The most optimistic scenario for Russia is that there were only a few ballistic missiles in Toropets, and everything that was lost could eventually be replaced, perhaps by that first batch of Fath-360 missiles coming from Iran. The worst-case scenario for Russia is that it has just lost a significant portion of its best ammunition to attack Ukraine.
Consequences of an explosion at an arsenal in the city
For Ukraine, the raid in the Tver region could be a turning point. For months, officials in Kyiv have been asking their European and American counterparts to allow the use of transferred long-range ammunition — British Storm Shadow cruise missiles and French SCALP-EG, as well as US Army tactical missile system missiles — against targets deep inside Russia, including ammunition depots.
However, Europeans and Americans have consistently refused such permission, even though the number of civilian casualties from Russian missile strikes is growing.
Apparently frustrated, the Ukrainians have redoubled efforts to produce locally developed weapons — drones and missiles — that they can launch against targets in Russia without asking anyone's permission.
By blowing up an arsenal in Toropets, this homemade weapon may have delivered the biggest blow — and potentially saved dozens of Ukrainian lives by preventing future Russian attacks. "A very important result has been achieved," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said just hours after the Toropets explosion.