Ukraine Doubles The Number Of Destroyed Russian Air Defense Systems In Six Months
- 13.05.2026, 21:05
Ukrainian attacks are particularly serious at mid-range.
Ukraine's armed forces are on the hunt for Russian air defense systems. Growing production and increasingly sophisticated drone technology allowed Ukraine to destroy twice as many enemy air defense and radar assets in April as it did in October 2025, writes Der Spiegel. The growing "holes" in Russia's air defense are weakening both the front and the rear. The former is deprived of supplies by the destruction of the forward supply system, including warehouses with ammunition, vehicles and equipment, while the latter is left without protection from attacks on energy infrastructure and military-industrial complex facilities.
Ukrainian attacks are particularly serious at medium ranges, within 200 kilometers of the front line, Der Spiegel notes: drones disable medium-range anti-aircraft missile systems such as Tor and Buk, and sometimes destroy more expensive ones, such as the S-300. While the AFU destroyed 16 air defense systems, radars and suppression devices in the fall of 2025, from March to May 10 this year - 37, the publication quotes WarSpotting's calculations.
Mid-range drones from January to April carried out about 600 strikes on territories occupied by the Russian army. The situation is especially difficult for it in the south, where the distance from the front to the coast can be as little as 90 kilometers, and the AFU strikes jeopardize the supply of troops and the Crimean Peninsula. And 11,211 drones were shot down over Russian territory in March, RIA Novosti wrote, citing data from the Russian Defense Ministry - twice as many as in February; the propaganda media did not say how many hit their targets.
This year, Vladimir Putin and Russia's top military leadership have increasingly exaggerated the successes of its army of troops on the battlefield, but since October 2025, the pace of its advance has slowed every month as Ukrainian forces have stepped up medium-range strikes, creating additional obstacles for it, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) points out. It adds: amid increasingly successful Ukrainian drone raids, Russian military bloggers have already repeatedly pointed to the shortage of air defense missiles.
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