Air defense shoots down ballistic missile for the first time in a long time after Patriots arrive

Ukrainian air defense has once again shown a significant result in intercepting Russian ballistic missiles for the first time in a long time - seven "Iskander-M/KN-23" missiles were shot down during a night attack on August 27. In recent weeks, ballistic missiles remained the biggest problem for air defense due to an acute shortage of interceptors for Patriot systems.

The results of the night attack were reported by the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Russia used ballistic missiles "Iskander-M/KN-23". The total number of launched missiles of this type was not disclosed by the military this time, but they reported the destruction of seven ballistic targets at once.

This noticeably differs from the situation during a number of previous Russian attacks, when ballistic missiles either did not appear in the list of downed targets at all, or their interception rate remained low.

Ukraine lacked missiles for Patriot

The main reason for the problems with intercepting ballistic missiles in recent weeks was directly called by Ukrainian authorities the lack of missiles for Patriot - systems capable of effectively working against such targets.

As early as August 20, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that during another combined strike, Ukraine shot down about 90% of Russian cruise missiles, while the situation with ballistic missiles was "significantly worse".

The president directly linked this problem with the lack of interceptors for Patriot and emphasized that Ukraine can receive such missiles only from partners.

Earlier, Zelenskyy also stated that the problem with protection against Russian ballistic missiles is explained precisely by the insufficient number of interceptors. According to him, when the necessary means are available, Ukrainian air defense demonstrates high results.

New batch of missiles arrived two days ago

On August 25, Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukraine received another batch of missiles for Patriot systems. At the same time, he emphasized that they arrived few and need to continue replenishing stock.

"A little more Patriot missiles have arrived. How many - I cannot say, but a little. We need more", - the president said.

During the next large-scale Russian attack, the Air Force reported the destruction of seven ballistic missiles.

At the same time, it was not officially reported which anti-aircraft systems carried out these interceptions and whether missiles from the batch that arrived in Ukraine in recent days were used for them. Therefore, it is currently impossible to directly link the new Patriot supply with the results of this attack.

Also shot down "Oniks" and over 220 drones

In addition to ballistic missiles, Russia launched two anti-ship missiles "Oniks". One of them was destroyed by Ukrainian air defense.

Also, the enemy used 258 attack and other drones, including Shahed, "Gerbera", "Banderol" type drones and other UAVs.

Defense forces shot down or neutralized 222 attack drones and three "Banderols".

Thus, the main feature of this attack was not the total number of destroyed air targets, but the return of effective air defense work specifically against ballistic missiles - the component of Russian strikes, against which Ukraine recently felt the greatest shortage of defense means.

Based on materials: Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Office of the President of Ukraine