Ukraine intercepts 46% of Russian missiles launched over past 6 months – WSJ

Compared to the previous half-year, Ukrainian air defence has intercepted far fewer Russian missiles, with 46% of missiles shot down over the last six months and 73% over the six months before that.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Quote: "In the past six months, Ukraine intercepted around 46% of Russian missiles, compared with 73% in the preceding six-month period, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of daily data from the Ukrainian Air Force Command. 

Last month the interception rate fell to 30% of missiles. The interception rate for long-range Shahed drones, which are easier to shoot down, fell just 1 percentage point to 82% in the past six months."

Details: It is noted that the deterioration of the effectiveness of Ukrainian air defence comes as Russia is increasing the number of drones and missile attacks, as well as launching more and more weapons that are difficult to down, such as ballistic missiles.

In addition, Kyiv is running out of ammunition for the Patriot air defence systems supplied by the West.

Over the past six months, Russia has launched about 45% more drones and missiles than in the six months before that.

A spokesperson for the Ukrainian Armed Forces explained to the WSJ that intercepting more attacks leads to the depletion of ammunition stocks, and large-scale attacks can overwhelm Ukrainian defences, as air defence systems sometimes do not have time to reload quickly enough.

Over the past six months, Russia has fired almost twice as many Shahed attack drones at Ukraine (2,628) compared to the same period prior to that. Analysts said that the drones are partly used to test air defence systems before launching missiles.

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