Overnight on May 17, around 5:30 local time, Ukrainian air defense repelled several waves of missiles aimed at Ukraine. Weapons used for this attack include sea-, land- and air-launched cruise missiles, as well as a few explosive drones.
Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports that for this round of shelling, russians engaged two Tu-160 and eight Tu-95 strategic bomber aircraft, they launched 22 missiles of Kh-101 and Kh-555 types. At the same time, missile carriers in the Black Sea fired six Kalibr missiles, while Iskander systems on the ground discharged two R-500 cruise missiles. The Ukrainian Air Force Command says 29 enemy missiles were taken down.
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With 29 out of 30 missiles neutralized, Ukraine's air defense 96% reached effectiveness this night. That is not to mention another two Shahed-type kamikaze drones and two reconnaissance drones were downed as well.
On a separate note, we should outline that engaging as many as ten strategic aircraft to launch only 22 missiles sounds bizarre because the standard payload of a Tu-160 is up to 12 cruise missiles, while a Tu-95 can take aboard 6 missiles in a rotary launcher inside fuselage and/or 8 more attached to the wings bottom.
This may indicate that russians send more aircraft than needed for imitating an attack more threatening than in reality, or that the actual number of missiles discharged was higher, but then some of them fell halfway through on the territory of russia. We should also not rule out the option of a scheme rolling in the russian "aerospace forces" who try to get more money due to a bigger number of sorties.
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