Ukraine's mobile anti-aircraft defense system has enough ammunition to repel “a few” new major Russian attacks, but its supplies can only be replenished with Western help, a Ukrainian general warns.
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If the Ukrainian army currently says it has managed to shoot down most of the missiles and drones launched by Russia, these attacks have increased in recent days and continue to claim numerous victims: around fifty dead in Friday's attack, including 30 in Kiev , five in Tuesday's and hundreds of civilians were injured.
“In the current situation, ammunition (…) in terms of mobile air defense systems is sufficient to withstand the next powerful attacks,” General Serguii Naev, the commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, stressed on Wednesday by AFP during an interview with other soldiers near Kiev.
“But in the medium and long term, of course, we need the help of Western countries to replenish the missile stock,” adds the man who heads these units, which are particularly responsible for defending the capital’s airspace.
For him, the priority is therefore to “procure more ammunition” in the face of a Russian army that “really wants to exhaust the anti-aircraft system.”
According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia has sent almost 300 missiles and more than 200 Shahed explosive drones against Ukraine since December 29, 2023.
General Naïev's units are equipped with mobile systems and not with more advanced equipment like the American Patriots, capable of firing Russian Kinjal hypersonic missiles. “Of course we would like more missiles for the Patriots and more systems themselves,” this senior Ukrainian officer continues.
The last two waves of massive Russian attacks have been an opportunity for Ukrainian officials to pressure the West to increase aid after nearly two years of Russian invasion.
Decoy missiles
General Naev presented medals to the soldiers protecting the skies and praised an “effectiveness rate of around 90%” during the Russian airstrike on Tuesday.
“No other air defense system in the world is capable of achieving such results, especially in the fight against Russia,” he believes.
However, residents of a building destroyed by recent Russian attacks in Kiev expressed anger to AFP on Tuesday after Ukrainian defenses failed to save their homes.
For his part, General Naev promises that “improving the effectiveness of the air defense system is our task and we work on it 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
“Every Ukrainian citizen must be convinced that the military authorities are doing everything in their power to ensure their peace,” he said.
Roman, a soldier using a portable US Stinger missile launcher, tells how he and his team shot down two cruise missiles on Tuesday using a ZU-23 anti-aircraft gun.
“We work more often now” and Tuesday was “difficult,” he admits, especially since his family still lives in the Ukrainian capital.
“My wife and child are sleeping at home in Kiev. I understand (…) that I have to work,” he said.
On Tuesday he fired off a first rocket with his Stinger, then “six minutes later the second rocket flew over us.” “The guys in our unit also worked precisely on the second rocket with the ZU-23,” assures this soldier .
But Russia, he said, has recently begun resorting to new tactics.
“The Russians are now firing missiles that fire dummy missiles in flight, like those used from airplanes or helicopters. “This has never happened before…and it is a problem for the Stingers and their infrared targeting system,” explains Roman.
These decoys are much hotter than the rocket's exhaust and can therefore deceive these defense systems.
“We first heard about it about a month ago and now we have seen it with our own eyes,” the soldier continues.
Luckily for his unit, the decoys didn't work during Tuesday's attack, he said.