No country can guarantee 100% interception of combined air attacks – Ihnat

This was stated by Yurii Ihnat, Head of the Communications Department of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, during a broadcast on Novyny.Live, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

“At present, it is impossible to guarantee that everything will be shot down. Neither in the Middle East, nor here (in Ukraine – ed.). The maximum possible number of targets is intercepted if there is an air defense system available – such as a Patriot – in the right place at the right time. But even one battery cannot fully cover Kyiv. It is a huge city, and Patriot effectively covers only one direction. Therefore, all available means are being used, but with the enormous density of the attack and under the influence of other factors, the result is not always what we would like to see,” Ihnat stressed.

He recalled that during the latest massive attack, Russian forces used land-, air-, and sea-launched cruise missiles, hypersonic Zircon missiles, Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles, S-300 missiles, Iskander-M missiles, rocket-powered and conventional Shahed drones, as well as decoy drones.

“Each weapon system has its own flight characteristics. Naturally, different means are needed to counter them. It is extremely difficult to do this when attacks are coming from all directions,” Ihnat explained.

He added that mobile fire groups equipped with machine guns and man-portable air-defense systems, interceptor drones, manned aircraft, and other assets were involved in repelling the attack.

As reported by Ukrinform, during the night of May 24, Ukraine’s air defense forces neutralized 55 missiles and 549 Russian drones launched in the attack. The main target was Kyiv, where impacts from 16 missiles and 51 attack drones were recorded across 54 locations.