The air defense fails: Ukraine is increasingly unable to beat Russian missiles - NYT

About it writes The New York Times. Data obtained as a result of the analysis of daily Ukrainian military reports indicate serious changes: Ukraine is increasingly unable to stop Russian missiles, which undermines its ability to protect the main infrastructure and immerses cities into darkness. Russian air attacks have struck the critical Ukrainian weapons and railways used to supply the front. They are also aimed at Ukrainian troops on the front line.

Journalists explained that the reason is not only in the insufficient number of air defense. "Russia has also changed its tactics, firing Ukraine with more powerful barriers that overload Ukrainian air defense and faster missiles that are harder to knock down," the material reads.

According to The New York Times, the arrival of the Patriot system and other Western weapons gave rise to the hope that Ukrainian cities would be better protected, however, when Russia has reinforced its rocket attacks again, Ukraine could not stop them. "Russia has improved its tactics by releasing larger and more complex barriers, including winged, ballistic and hypersonic missiles.

To knock out Ukrainian defense to break down from the panthelic, Russia often begins with launching punches that follow different points. At the same time, Ukrainian commanders say that there is a more fundamental cause of falling indicators in Kiev - a shortage of ammunition, which is only intensified. It is because of this, according to President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, Russia destroyed the largest power plant in the Kiev region.

And the Air Force spokesman Ilya Yevlash said that Russia has so many C-300 missiles that there is no point in trying to intercept them all. The New York Times noted that Ukraine is much more successful to intercepts percussion drones. The data of the Ukrainian Air Force show that last year they have knocked about 80 percent of them, almost all Shahheda drones. This is due to the fact that they are slower than rockets and can be knocked down by less complex weapons, such as anti -aircraft guns.

However, according to NYT, the number of drones intercepted by Ukraine has also declined, as Russia has adapted its drone park, changing flight schemes, increasing speed and painting them in black to avoid detection. Ukraine's need for sorting its air defense systems makes some cities much more vulnerable than others. And Russia has used this situation as much as possible in recent months, causing strokes in cities and regions that do not use patriots such as Kiev.

Since December, Russian troops aimed, in particular, on a large lane of land extending from Kharkiv in the northeast to Odessa in the south. The western regions of Ukraine, which have been deprived of heavy bombardments for most of the war, are also increasingly blown. According to Yevlash, given the limited means of air defense, Ukrainian Air Force uses them in a "non -standard way".

They move them all over the country to adapt to Moscow's changing tactics and reduce the likelihood that weapons will be spotted and destroyed by Russian troops. But this will not be enough, according to a senior researcher on military-air forces and technologies of the Royal Institute of Joint Armed Forces in London Justin Bronck.

"Ukrainian commanders should constantly make an extremely difficult choice between protecting critically important national infrastructure, key military objects, cities and troops on and near the front line . . . There are missiles that can not be intercepted with what we have, and They fly, as they please, "the bronk said. We will remind, on May 13 The New York Times wrote that the Ukrainian leadership can go to a forced truce with Russia through the offensive of the Russian army on Kharkiv.