“We have no days off” – the relentless work of the Ukrainian air defenses

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Find it, shore it up, shoot it.

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The exercise is the same for Ukraine’s air defense teams, who are working tirelessly to counter the relentless barrage of missiles the Russians are launching on Kiev, mostly thwarting the most intense bombing of the capital in the first weeks of war.

Only in May Russia has bombed Kiev 17 times.

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A municipal clinic damaged during Russian missile attacks, during Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kiev, Ukraine June 1, 2023. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Kiev/Handout via REUTERS

A municipal clinic damaged during Russian missile attacks, during Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kiev, Ukraine June 1, 2023. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Kiev/Handout via REUTERS

It launched MIG-31 fighter jet hypersonic missiles and land-based ballistic missile attacks powerful enough to flatten an entire apartment building. Russian bombers and ships have launched dozens of long-range cruise missiles, and more than 200 aircraft Attack drones engaged in bombing runs aimed at confusing and overwhelming Ukrainian air defenses.

It’s a constant struggle for Ukrainian defenders.

Russian attacks can be relentless.

They occur mostly at night but sometimes during the day, as happened on Monday.

Even when Ukraine manages to launch missiles from the sky, falling debris can cause death and destruction.

Early Thursday, Russia sent a salvo of 10 ballistic missiles against Kiev; Ukrainian authorities said they were all shot down, but the fallen fragments killed three people, including a child, and injured more than a dozen.

Overall, however, very little has penetrated the complex and increasingly sophisticated air defense network around the Ukrainian capital, saving dozens of lives.

“We have no days off,” says Riabyi, the callsign of the “shooter26-year-old who is part of a two-person anti-aircraft missile crew responsible for protecting a patch of sky outside Kiev.

defences

Ukraine’s air defenses are a patchwork of diverse weapons, many recently supplied by the West, protecting millions of civilians in Kiev and other cities, as well as critical infrastructure such as four operational nuclear power plants.

Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, called it “sort of a dog’s breakfast” of systems.

There are hundreds of people like Riabyi, gifted with stinger missiles Surface-to-air weapons and other US-made small arms.

Several others operate more complex launchers that have arrived recently, such as the Patriot (American), NASAMS (Norwegian-American), and SAMP/T (French-Italian).

Ukraine also uses German-made Gepard anti-aircraft guns and a mix of Soviet-era air defenses.

Andriy Yusov, spokesman for the Ukrainian military intelligence agency, called the recent air strikes on the capital an “unprecedented and massive” attack aimed at depleting the air defense systems, dealing a heavy symbolic blow to the heart of the old capital and sowing the terror.

President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked “the defenders of heaven” again in his address to the nation Tuesday night.

The battle in heaven, he clarified, is like this important like the bloody fight waged by the soldiers on the ground.

The teams of air defense in recent times they have managed to shoot down about 90% of incoming missiles and drones and, surprisingly, 100% of ballistic missiles aimed at Kiev, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.

These statistics have not been independently verified.

Air defense assets will also be key in the upcoming Ukrainian counter-offensive, keeping newly acquired weapons secure as they prepare for battle and then providing cover for Ukrainian troops if they manage to break through the Russian lines.

bombs

Riabyi and his partner, Oleg, 38, are responsible for protecting a 10 square kilometer patch of sky outside Kiev.

When the alarm sounds, they race from a base in the Kiev area to one of the few secret fire positions on the outskirts of the city, remove the tarp from a truck-mounted Stinger system, and gear up.

“If an air target approaches our sector, our commander gives us order number 1: find and kill,” he said, demonstrating the procedure recently at an undisclosed location outside Kiev.

After the team fires, its location is exposed and they have two minutes to move or risk being targeted.

On the side of the team’s truck, Ukrainian pitchforks mark their hits. The first two tridents represent Russian fighter planes they claimed to have shot down during the early days of the war.

Since then, they have shot down six Orlan reconnaissance drones, two Russian attack helicopters and two Iranian-made Shahed drones.

However, continued success in the skies is by no means assured.

Leaked Pentagon documents made public in April expressed deep concern that Russia could achieve air superiority when Ukraine runs out of anti-aircraft missiles for the Soviet-designed S-300 and Buk systems that still form the backbone of defenses aerial.

Since that analysis leaked, Ukraine’s Western allies have ramped up supplies of new systems and munitions.

The arrival of two Patriot batteries in late April provided Ukraine with its first system designed to shoot down ballistic missiles.

Air defense systems rely on various methods of shooting down missiles.

For cruise missiles traveling approximately 500mph, defenders will deploy interceptors that target the missiles for their thermal signature, or paint them with lasers, making them easy targets, among other tactics.

Ballistic missiles can travel five to ten times the speed of sound.

The Ukrainians attack them with interceptor missiles also capable of traveling at about five times the speed of sound, which have their own guidance and radar to help track at such high speeds.

The only proven defense against the powerful Russian Iskander missiles is the American Patriot Air Defensewhich can be fired within nine seconds of identifying a target.

However, Ukraine faces tough decisions about how to deploy its own limited resources.

Karako of the Missile Defense Project said the recent attacks on Kiev showed “how stressful and demanding a concerted airstrike can be,” emphasizing the need for Ukraine to continue building its defenses as the Russians try to wear them down.

Although the Ukrainian and Western authorities have signaled that Russia will most likely remain no precision missiles and resorting more to less accurate missiles and drones, Moscow has shown that it continues to have the ability to carry out attacks at a constant pace.

Rocket hail

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion 15 months ago, it has fired more than 5,000 missiles and attack drones against targets across Ukraine, according to a recent study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

But like the Russian ground offensives, the air assaults have not produced the strategic military effects desired by Moscow, according to the study, and Ukraine’s air defenses have “largely affected the course of the war, limiting Russia’s strike power”.

Yusov, a representative of Ukrainian military intelligence, said the Russians they changed tactics after bombing of civilian infrastructure and cities during the winter and early spring failed to cripple Ukraine’s ability to function.

Moscow is now targeting more military installations to undermine Ukraine’s counter-offensive, he said, while targeting Kiev because it remains “an unconquered target for the aggressor”.

Peter Mitchell, writing for the Institute of Modern Warfare of West Point, said the barrages are designed to fill the air with more incoming targets than the defenses can handle, “using a combination of land, sea or air missile platforms.”

For the residents of Kiev, the near-night shelling was exhausting and terrifying.

The first alarm usually sounds after midnight and the assaults last for hours.

“I check the information trying to understand what is flying and from where,” said Natalia Ulianytska, 32, a human rights activist who lives in Kiev.

“When there’s a massive rocket attack, I go to the bathroom with my cat,” she said.

Ulianytska said she was not so much scared as anxious and “very angry”.

He knows when the Russian drones and missiles are coming from the thunderous explosions in the sky.

Even when air defense teams manage to shoot down a target, there is a danger of burning debris raining down on the roads.

Over the past month, several people have been killed and injured by falling debris in Kiev and dozens of businesses and apartment buildings have been damaged.

Riabyi, the gunner, says he had to learn on the job.

He was still training at a base in western Ukraine when Russia invaded the country.

His wife, pregnant with their first child, fled their home north of Kiev before Russian soldiers occupied the city; Riabyi was sent to Kiev.

His daughter was born in May, but he didn’t see her for the first time until December.

They spent a few days together and then he had to go back to his place to help the girl sleep peacefully.

Anna Lukinova contributed to the report.

Marc Santora is the international news writer in London, specializing in breaking news. Previously he was head of the Central and Eastern Europe office in Warsaw. He has also done numerous reports from Iraq and Africa. @MarcSantoraNYT

c.2023 The New York Times Society

Source: Clarin

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