In an interview on Radio Liberty, Yuri Ignat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, admitted that Ukrainian forces are finding it increasingly difficult to intercept and shoot down Russian missiles and drones. Ignat admitted that Russian projectiles are capable of changing course in seconds, thereby becoming “invisible” to Ukraine's air defenses.
The Russian military is employing increasingly sophisticated tactics, “planning their strikes, programming [missile] courses ... to bypass air defenses in the most effective way and exploit weak points. The projectiles are constantly changing course," he explained.
In one case, Russian missiles flew as far as Ukraine’s westernmost Lvov region before returning to hit a military airport in the Khmelnytskyi region in the center of the country. In addition, a Russian missile “can disappear from radar and become invisible to radar for a certain period of time,” Ignat added.
Kiev currently uses expensive air defense systems supplied by Washington and Ukraine’s NATO allies. The list includes US-made Patriot air defense systems and German-made Iris-T air defense systems.
