Russia launched 7,400 missiles at Ukraine during since start of invasion
- 22 December, 09:02
Russia launched 7,400 missiles and 3,700 Shahed assault drones at targets in Ukraine since the start of its 22-month-old invasion last year, Kyiv has reported.
Ukrainian air defence forces were able to shoot down 1,600 of the missiles and 2,900 of the drones, Yuriy Ihnat, the spokesperson of the air forces said on December 21. The military official noted that ten to 15 regions are involved in shooting down Iran-made Shahed drones every night.
Ihnat went on saying that during the early days of the Russian invasion, Ukrainian air forces "were shooting at them with everything we could find, with pistols, submachine guns.
“Even then it became clear that the target is not simple, there are many complications, mistakes. You need to prepare,” he added. In his words, the relatively lower missile downing rate had to do with Russia’s use of supersonic missiles that are hard to detect. Among the hypersonic missiles used by Russia is Kinzhal ballistic missile that was launched in 2018 and called “invincible” by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It should be noted that Ukraine has been boosting its air defence system with Western-supplied advanced missile systems such as Patriots throughout the Russian invasion.
Moscow claims it was only targeting military targets in Ukraine, while also admitting to targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Russia started launching Ukraine’s drone infrastructure in September.
