Colonel Yuriy Ignat, spokesman of the Air Force Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told about this at a briefing at the Ukraine Media Center.
Every day, Russian missiles strike not only military facilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but also peaceful Ukrainian cities. Russia is striking Ukraine with rockets, bombs, and missiles. In their turn Ukraine’s anti-aircraft units shoot down a large part of these enemy projectiles, but they cannot protect all the sites and cities.
Read more: Ukrainian Army Deploys Echeloned Air Defense System to Protect Kyiv
Combat work of the Ukrainian air defense - anti-aircraft missile units of the "East" air command (city of Dnipro, July 5, 2022, 4:00 a.m.)
According to the spokesman of the Air Force Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in fact, Ukraine’s air defense systems were not designed to intercept missiles, and they are not powerful enough to protect the entire territory of Ukraine.
In particular, it is impossible for the Ukrainian forces to shoot down high-speed Russian missiles, such as the Kh-22,Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, P-800 Oniks and 9K720 Iskander (ballistic missile system).
On the other hand, Ukrainian complexes use non-standard tactics to shoot down cruise and aviation missiles, such as the Kh-101, Kh-59, Kh-32, Kalibr and others, whose speed does not exceed 800 km/h.
These are high-tech programmed missiles that travel low, adapt to the terrain, fly in riverbeds, and can change course.
“We use all possible and impossible means, even non-standard ones, to counter these missiles. No country has ever faced such massive enemy strikes. The Ukrainian Air Force, the Air Defense Forces of the Ground Forces and other units face such challenges every day and try to find different methods to shoot down enemy missiles,” the spokesman of the Air Force Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces says.
He also continue: “We call this the art of war, military cunning, a non-standard approach. Russia is numerically and technologically superior, but we are on our land, we have a strong fighting spirit, we have nowhere else to go, and we will implement any solution that might protect our people and our country from the Russian horde.”
Yuriy Ihnat underlines that it is impossible to count the number of missiles that have been shot down by Ukrainian air defense systems.
Every day, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine issues a report on the number of destroyed enemy hardware. Currently – 155 cruise missiles. But, the intensity of the missile strikes is very high, which makes it difficult to give an exact number.
As Defense Express reported, Ukrainian Army deployed echeloned air defense system to protect Kyiv. We also wrote that there is a shortage of high-precision cruise missiles used by russia for the shelling of Ukraine.
Read more: How Do Russians ‘Outsmart’ Ukrainian Air Defense During Missile Attacks
