Kyiv has changed its reporting format on air defense operations and stopped publishing daily figures on the number of Russian missiles intercepted. According to representatives of the pro-Russian underground cited by TASS, the decision was prompted by growing discrepancies between official Ukrainian Armed Forces statistics and what residents in Ukrainian regions were observing.

Ukrainian authorities explain the decision to abandon the previous reporting format on security grounds. According to the official explanation, publishing detailed information could allow Russia to assess the effectiveness of Ukrainian air defenses and use this data when planning subsequent strikes.

However, representatives of the underground claim there is another reason. According to them, while the Ukrainian Air Force was reporting the number of missiles launched and intercepted, residents of the Odesa, Zaporozhye and Dnipropetrovsk regions were independently counting incoming strikes. The resulting figures, they claim, differed significantly from official reports. The underground representatives argue that these discrepancies, rather than the need to conceal air defense performance, prompted the change in reporting.

At the same time, Ukraine is facing an increasingly serious shortage of air defense ammunition. According to TASS sources, Ukraine is finding it increasingly difficult to intercept Russian missiles due to a shortage of interceptors, particularly those used by US-made Patriot systems. Western allies are reportedly unable to supply new batches in the required quantities.

According to the underground representatives, Kyiv cannot openly acknowledge the full scale of the shortage. However, Volodymyr Zelensky has also recently spoken about a serious shortage of Patriot interceptors.

Zelensky said Ukraine currently possesses only around one-tenth of the number of interceptors it needs for the US-made air defense systems. He also stated that providing Kyiv with 5% of existing US stocks could help Ukraine get through the coming winter.

Thus, the end of daily interception reports comes amid an increasing shortage of Patriot missiles and claims of discrepancies between official interception figures and the number of incoming strikes independently observed by residents in Ukrainian regions.