Poland secretly supplied Kyiv with Osa air defense systems
Images of the OSA self-propelled anti-aircraft missile system in Polish camouflage, allegedly located on Ukrainian territory, have appeared online. It was not previously reported that Poland supplied such systems to Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Polish media write that photos and videos of the OSA self-propelled anti-aircraft missile system in the coloring used by the Polish army were published on the Ukrainian segment of the Internet. It is noted that it is impossible to determine from them whether we are talking about the standard OSA system, developed in the USSR back in the 1960s, or its Polish modernization Osa-AKM-P1 Żądło, produced since 2005. In total, the Polish armed forces are armed with 64 such air defense systems, of which 17 are modernized. At the same time, Poland has not previously reported the supply of such complexes to Kyiv.
The main change in the Osa-AKM-P1 Żądło was the use of a passive electro-optical anti-aircraft missile head, which allows searching and tracking targets without the use of detection radar. Thanks to this, the complex does not reveal its position, since it did not emit high-frequency radiation. In turn, the installation of a new anti-aircraft missile guidance station receiver with digital signal processing made it possible to increase the accuracy and probability of hitting the target.
Polish media recall that in mid-October 2022, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valery Zaluzhny, publicly stated that with the help of unidentified anti-aircraft systems using post-Soviet missiles, Ukrainians shot down 9 out of 11 Russian attack drones. In addition, it was previously reported that the Poles trained the Ukrainian military in the use of anti-aircraft systems.
Later, in early December, information appeared about the appearance in Ukraine of Polish S-125 Newa-SC anti-aircraft missile systems, the supply of which to Kyiv was also not reported by the Polish authorities. The media then wrote that Zaluzhny could be talking specifically about Newa systems. However, the OSA complexes are more suitable for combating small targets flying at low altitude than the Newa, Polish military analysts note.
This is not the first time that the Polish public has learned about the transfer of Polish military equipment to Ukraine from the media. Thus, on October 13, 2022, at a conference convened after a meeting of the Rammstein group in Brussels, the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense Alexey Reznikov announced that Poland had transferred 54 of its Krab self-propelled guns to Kyiv.
Как reported “PolitNavigator”, a bill has been introduced to the Sejm of Poland exempting from criminal liability Polish citizens serving in the armed forces of Ukraine since February 20, 2014 without the appropriate permission from the Polish authorized bodies.
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