Ukraine's Tochka-U missile: Can it stop Russian attack?
The missile is considered perfect against buildings with personnel and armament.
Tochka-U missile
As the war in Ukraine continues, Moscow-backed separatists said that fragments from a shot-down Ukrainian Tochka-U missile ripped through the centre of the eastern city of Donetsk killing 23 people.
Moscow called it a "war crime" as rebels published images of bloody corpses strewn in the street. However, Ukraine's army denied firing a missile at the city, with Ukrainian army spokesman Leonid Matyukhin saying in a statement: "It is unmistakably a Russian rocket or another munition."
Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the strike with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the Kremlin said.
Separatists, who have controlled the city since 2014, had earlier said fragments from a rocket they shot down had left between 16 and 20 civilians dead.
(Photograph:AFP)
Tochka-U missile power
The Tochka-U ballistic missiles can be mounted on a 6×6 truck. It has a range of 120 kilometers. Reports claim Ukraine has around 90 Tochka-U missiles in its arsenal.
The missile is considered perfect against buildings with personnel and armament. It is a Soviet-era missile which was first deployed in the 1980s.
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Rockets down
Official separatist Telegram channels distributed photos and video of the aftermath, showing burnt out cars, bodies strewn in the street, and damage to shops.
In an interview with Russian state-run television, the head of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, said the shot-down rocket had inflicted damage to residential areas.
"People were waiting in line near an ATM and were standing at a bus stop," he said in remarks broadcast on Russian television.
"There are children among the dead," Pushilin said, adding that the casualty count would have been higher had the rocket not been downed.
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Russia's rocket launchers against Ukraine
As Russian forces continue to pound Ukraine, the country has been using rocket fire indiscriminately since February 24 when Putin declared his "special operation" against Ukraine.
The Russian Army is reportedly using Grad (Hail), Smerch(Tornado) and Urgan(Hurricane) multiple rocket launchers.
The Grad is reportedly capable of firing 20 rockets in less than 20 seconds. It is a Soviet-era launcher first developed in the 60s. The missile literally means "hail" in Russian signifying a hailstorm of bombs pouring out from the air at a targeted area.
Human rights activists have hit out against Russia's indiscriminate use of rocket launchers targeted at civilian areas.
Russia has reportedly used the Grad rocket launchers in Kharkiv which has reportedly suffered immense damage. It was also reportedly used by Volnovakha and Donetsk targeting civilians.
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;Russian Orlan-10 drones
As Ukraine's forces continue to resist Russia over three weeks into the war, the Russian ministry of defence had released a video which reportedly showed Orlan-10 UAV Krasnopol laser-guided artillery strikes in Kyiv Oblast.
Reports also claimed Russia may be using "suicide drones" or "loitering munition" in the Ukraine war.
The Zala KYB UAV "loitering munition" is designed to take out remote ground targets with ease and can hit targets with high precision.
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Orlan-10 UAV
The Orlan-10 UAV is a medium-range, multi-purpose unmanned aerial vehicle which conducts aerial reconnaissance and electronic warfare. It is usually used in groups by the Russian army as it strikes enemy targets.
The Orlan-10 has multiple cameras including thermal imaging camera and radio transmitter and can offer real-time intelligence on the ground with 3D maps. The production of Orlan-10 had started in 2010
The Russian forces had conducted drills of the Orlan-10 in the Kemerovo region in southwestern Siberia last year.
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The Punisher drone
As the war with Russia continues to drag on, Ukraine has deployed the lethal Punisher drones which has carried out several successful missions.
It can reportedly fly upto 30 miles inside enemy territory and has been used to disrupt Russia's supply lines blasting the long convoys and targeting the ammunition dumps.
The drones fly almost undetected with a wingspan of 7.5 feet and can fly at a height of 1,300 feet. The flight path of the "Punisher" is automatic and it feeds off its companion drone called the "Spectre" which helps in reconnaissance and identifying targets.
The drone is reportedly designed by a company called UA Dynamics comprising of veterans who fought in the Crimea conflict against Russia in 2014.
(Photograph:AFP)
Drones target targeting Russian columns
The Ukrainian ambassador in Ankara has regularly tweeted images of explosions attributed to the drones, targeting Russian columns and artillery, with accompanying phrases like: "#c -- "Mashallah (God be praised)" and strings of joyous emojis.
"These TB2 strikes are, in comparison to ground combat, relatively small in number, but important for Ukrainian morale precisely because it shows Russia does not control the skies," said Aaron Stein, of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
