FT Reports Ukraine’s Air Defense Struggling Against Russian Missile Strikes
Financial Times says Ukraine’s air defense intercepted only 6% of Russian ballistic missiles in September, as strikes hit defense industry and infrastructure.
The Financial Times concluded that Ukraine’s air defense is intercepting fewer and fewer Russian missiles aimed at the country’s defense-industrial facilities.
According to the newspaper, the interception rate of ballistic missiles by Ukrainian air defense in September dropped to just six percent, despite fewer launches compared to August. The authors, citing analysis of open-source data collected by the UK-based Centre for Information Resilience, wrote that Russia’s strike campaign has destroyed key military sites and critical infrastructure on the eve of winter.
Earlier this year, Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov stated that by 2025 Russian forces had damaged 62 percent of Ukraine’s key defense industry enterprises.
Ukraine itself admitted over the summer that it had lost four drone production plants.
In July, the Wall Street Journal reported that modified Russian ballistic missiles may be capable of bypassing radar systems of U.S.-supplied Patriot air defense complexes.