Most Ukrainian missiles and drones fail to get past Russia’s air defence network, with only a small share reaching their targets, The Economist has reported.

According to the outlet, the success rate of such strikes varies sharply depending on the type of weapon used, ranging from 2% to 35%. Even large-scale attacks still produce limited results. The Economist noted that the weapons most likely to break through are the fastest missiles, especially those travelling at more than 350 kilometres per hour.

Against this backdrop, Ukraine is trying to develop its own missiles that would be harder for Russian forces to intercept. But within the country’s defence sector, the magazine reported, there are doubts about whether these ambitions are realistic.

Andrey Ryzhenko, a former deputy chief of staff of the Ukrainian Navy, said Ukraine cannot quickly move from basic production to full-scale missile development. He argued that while the country still has a missile engineering tradition, the technology in this field has seen little real development for about 40 years.

Another source cited by The Economist offered an even harsher assessment, saying Ukraine’s best-case scenario could be a missile-shaped imitation assembled largely from Western components.