Ukraine air defenses stretched thin, says air force official

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia’s recent escalation of missile and drone attacks is stretching Ukraine’s air defense resources, a Ukrainian air force official said Tuesday, leaving the country vulnerable in the 22-month war unless it can secure further weapons supplies.

“Intense Russian air attacks force us to use a corresponding amount of air defense means,” air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat told national television. “That’s why we need more of them, as Russia keeps increasing its [air] attack capabilities.”

As soldiers on both sides fight from largely static positions along the roughly 930-mile front line, recent Russian attacks have used large numbers of various types of missiles in an apparent effort to saturate air defense systems and find gaps in Ukraine’s defenses.

The intensive barrages — more than 500 drones and missiles were fired between Dec. 29 and Jan. 2, according to officials in Kyiv — are also using up Ukraine’s weapons stockpiles.

Ukraine uses weapons from the Soviet era and more modern ones provided by its Western allies. Authorities want to build up the country’s own weapons manufacturing capabilities, and analysts say those plants are among Russia’s recent targets.

“At the moment, we are completely dependent on the supply of guided air defense missiles, for both Soviet and Western systems,” Ihnat said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Jan. 7 that “we lack a very concrete and understandable thing, that is air defense systems,” to protect civilian areas and troop positions.

Speaking at a meeting with the Russian military brass, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu declared that Kyiv’s efforts to bolster its firepower “won’t change the situation on the line of contact and will only drag out the military conflict.”

“We retain the strategic initiative along the entire line of contact,” Shoigu said. “We will consistently continue to achieve the objectives of the special military operation” — the Kremlin’s language for the war in Ukraine.

It was not possible to verify either side’s battlefield claims.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has increasingly targeted Moscow-occupied Crimea and Russian border regions with long-range strikes.

In the latest strike, two drones fell on the premises of a fuel and energy facility Tuesday in the Russian city of Orlov, 150 miles from the Ukraine border, Gov. Andrei Klychkov said.

Three people were injured and a fire broke out but was quickly extinguished, Klychkov said.

The U.K. Defense Ministry pointed to repeated signs of shortcomings in Russia’s air defenses. Ukrainian strikes on military targets in Crimea on Jan. 4 demonstrate “the ineffectiveness of Russian air defenses in protecting key locations,” it noted Tuesday.

The Kremlin’s forces show no signs of easing off their winter campaign. In what officials called the biggest aerial barrage of the war, Russia launched 122 missiles and dozens of drones on Dec. 29, killing 62 civilians across the country. On Jan. 1, Russia launched a record 90 Shahed-type drones across Ukraine.

Russia has expanded its own production of missiles and drones, analysts say, and has begun using short-range missiles provided by North Korea.

Ukrainian officials have pleaded with the West for more weapons, especially air defense and artillery shells.