The Russian Federation has announced the use of laser weapons systems against Ukraine. The United States says it has seen no evidence of this, and Ukraine has ridiculed the statement, calling it propaganda. What is a laser weapon and how effective can it be in conflict?

Yuri Borisov, Russia’s deputy prime minister in charge of military development, told Russian television that a prototype laser called “Zadira” had been deployed in Ukraine, which burned a Ukrainian drone five kilometers away in five seconds.

“Zadira” is a supplement to the previous laser system “Peresvit” (named after a medieval Orthodox monk-warrior), which is able to blind enemy reconnaissance satellites in orbit, not allowing them to collect information.

“If Peresvit blinds, the new generation of laser weapons leads to physical destruction – thermal destruction, they burn,” Borisov said.

However, a spokesman for the US Department of Defense said he had not seen “anything that confirms allegations of the use of lasers” in Ukraine.

And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ridiculed Russia’s statement, comparing it to the so-called “miracle weapon” that Nazi Germany allegedly developed during World War II.

“The clearer it became that they had no chance in the war, the more there was propaganda talk about an amazing weapon that would be so powerful that it would provide a turning point in the war,” he said in a video message.

“And now we see that in the third month of the full-scale invasion, Russia is trying to find its” prodigy “. Allegedly laser. All this is a clear indication of the complete failure of their plans for our country.”

Almost nothing is known about the Russian “Bully”. In 2017, Russian media reported that the state nuclear corporation Rosatom had helped develop it as part of a program to create weapons based on new physical principles.

However, there is at least one country that has actually developed laser weapons. Last month, Israel released a video showing a laser system shooting down missiles and drones.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett even put the price of each strike at $ 3.50. “It may sound like science fiction, but it’s a reality,” he said.

However, Uzi Rubin, a military expert at the Jerusalem Institute of Strategy and Security (JISS), believes that laser weapons technology cannot change the balance of power on the battlefield in Ukraine.

“Zelensky is right – this is not a miracle weapon,” he told the BBC. “It took them a few seconds to shoot down the UAV. would be a longer range. ”

Lasers send a beam of infrared light that heats an object until it burns. According to Rubin, the power of even advanced laser weapons is still too weak to significantly affect the development of the conflict, and such weapons have a low “level of damage.”

It’s not Star Wars, where the bad guys are pointed at with a laser cannon, a quick push of a button, and a bad guy explodes. It’s more like a normal microwave. It takes a while to boil a cup of water. to aim at it and wait until it heats up and destroys it, “he explains.

According to Rubin, a laser can focus on only one target at a time, while missile defense systems can hit multiple targets at once.

In addition, lasers are powerless against bad weather – they do not work in rain or snow and can not penetrate through the clouds.

At the same time, laser weapons are cost-effective, Rubin explains.

Earlier, Israeli troops used the Iron Dome system to protect against external air threats. It was very effective, but it cost the country tens of thousands of dollars.

Therefore, the Ministry of Defense of Israel has decided to switch to a laser interception system “Iron Beam”, which is no less effective, but much cheaper.

Missile war is a war for resources. It is cheaper to produce missiles than to defend against them. Therefore, anything that reduces defense spending is useful, Rubin explains. “But we must remember that laser weapons are cheaper but not to carry out a revolution “.

But Russia could use lasers to blind Ukrainian soldiers, retired Australian Army Major General Mick Ryan told the Washington Post, although it violates the 1995 Additional Protocol to the UN Treaty, which bans the use of weapons that cause excessive damage or indiscriminate action.

Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries are signatories to this protocol.

Zelensky’s words about the “miracle weapon” – Wunderwaffen – refer to the propaganda of Nazi Germany.

The closer the Third Reich approached the moment of its collapse, the more it “relied” on “miracle weapons”.

The Ministry of Propaganda, headed by Josef Goebbels, tried to raise the fighting spirit of the Germans and strengthen the belief in victory, hinting that they would soon launch special new weapons that would change the course of the war in their favor.

According to Michael Neufeld of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, when the Germans began shelling Britain with V-1 (V-1) shells, the Nazi propaganda machine said it would force the British out of the war.

V-1 was the first cruise missile in history to be used in real combat. The letter V in its name comes from the word vergeltungswaffe – “weapon of retribution”.

“The propaganda assured us that we would take revenge and change the situation,” Neufeld said.

When this did not happen, there was disappointment, but the idea that this new weapon could be decisive, is alive even today, the scientist adds.

However, he warned against drawing too direct a parallel with Russia, which allegedly uses laser systems against Ukraine, as Moscow constantly brags, citing both nuclear and hypersonic weapons in its arsenal.

“At the beginning of the war, they thought that talks about these new weapons would intimidate and force Ukraine to surrender. And now they may be turning things around and saying they are still the best.”

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