Why Ukraine needs more air defense systems – Air Force spokesman explains

The Ukrainian military has already received almost all promised air defense systems from Western partners. However, this amount is insufficient to protect all essential facilities in the country.

This was stated by Yuriy Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, at a briefing in Kyiv.

“Today, we have received from the West virtually all the air defense equipment we were promised, one of the best air defense systems in the world. But the word “all” should be divided into the types of systems and the quantity for each. Certainly, two Patriot batteries are not enough for Ukraine”.

Yuriy Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Ihnat emphasized that Ukraine needs more systems like Patriot, which can shoot down ballistic and cruise missiles, and SAMP/T systems to protect its skies fully. According to him, one of the most modern systems Today is IRIS-T. These top-notch systems are already in Ukraine but in very limited numbers.

“The same goes for NASAMS systems, which are proving excellent in the fight against air targets. It’s all about quantity,” explained the spokesman.

At the same time, Ihnat emphasized the need for more suitable air defense systems to destroy Shahed drones launched by Russia in Ukraine to increase the effectiveness further.

“Today, we need to focus not only on these complexes that I have announced for the Air Force and the Ground Forces Air Defense, namely Paladin, which is not bad, but the UK will also supply to Ukraine. This is what is needed to destroy the Shahed drones because there are more of them, Russia has established production on its territory, and we need exactly the kind of means that can automatically destroy these targets with one hundred per cent success without human intervention,” the spokesman for the Air Force of Ukraine stated.

According to Ihnat, such properties have already been shown by the German Gepard system, which is good at destroying not only drones but also missiles. Ihnat emphasized that such rational use of weapons provided by the West will allow the Ukrainian military to destroy Russian attack UAVs, saving more expensive missiles for higher priority targets and the defense of Ukraine’s sky from Russian aviation.

In the first days of November, air raid alarms and explosions were reported in several regions of Ukraine almost daily as Russia launched new drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, targeting practically all regions.

In October, Germany supplied Ukraine with a second Patriot air-defence system and additional Gepards, while Spane sent six additional Hawk air-defence systems to help shield the critical energy infrastructure of Ukraine.

In autumn 2022, Russia launched the largest missile barrage to target Ukraine’s power grid since early spring, leaving parts of five regions, including the one around the capital, without electricity.

Modern and powerful Western air defence systems help Ukraine shoot down more Russian missiles and war drones. But if ammunition runs out, Russian warplanes and cruise missiles could pose a major threat to Ukraine’s energy sector again. There is little time left.