According to all norms - both international and ours, if even 30% of cruise missiles are shot down - the work of air defense is already considered successful.

It is important what missiles are used to attack.

Yuriy Ignat, the spokesman of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told about this in an interview with Channel 24.

"We can name the types of missiles that are capable of being shot down and those that are not. We can shoot down the types of cruise missiles whose tactical and technical characteristics allow them to be shot down by the systems that we have in our arsenal...: Buk-M1 and S-300. This anti-aircraft guided missiles that can shoot down both planes and cruise missiles," Ignat said.

What missiles

can 

Ukraine shoot down:

  • "Kalibr" (3М14) is a sea-based cruise missile (with which the enemy attacks from the Black Sea - Channel 24),

  • X-101/X-555/X-55 – air-launched cruise missiles,

  • R-500 (9M728) is a land-based cruise missile from the Iskander-K complex (an analogue of "Kalibra")

  • Kh-59 – guided air-to-ground aviation missile,

  • Kh-35 is an air, sea or shore-based anti-ship missile.

Which missiles Ukraine

cannot

 shoot down:

  • 9М723 – Iskander-M ballistic missile

  • 9M79M – "Points-U" missile

  • rocket launchers

  • Kh-22 is a supersonic long-range air-launched anti-ship cruise missile

  • R-800 - "Onyx" land-based cruise missile

  • Kh-47 - hypersonic Dagger aeroballistic missile

  • Kh-31P is an aviation anti-radar missile

"We do not shoot down ballistic missiles. In particular, Iskander-M are ballistic missiles 9M723, which the enemy used a lot at the beginning of the war. In fact, the Russians used up all their strategic stock of Iskander-M at the beginning of the war, so later they began to use outdated complexes "Point-U". At the Kramatorsk railway station, for example. Also, unfortunately, there is no possibility to intercept the rockets of the RSZV, such as the "Smerch", - said Ignat.

According to him, all these missiles fly fast - on a ballistic trajectory and actually fall on the target with a huge speed.

"In order to shoot down what is already falling, special anti-aircraft missile systems are needed. To ballistics, we also include S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles, which the occupiers use against ground targets in the front-line zone at a distance of up to 150 kilometers," the spokesman added. Air Force.

Ignat explains that the greater the distance from the launch site, the greater the inaccuracy, which is why Russian rockets often end up in the wrong place, and civilians die.

"In this application, it is nothing but a weapon of terrorism," Ignat emphasized.

In addition, although the Kh-22 missile is classified as a cruise missile, its speed is 4-5 thousand kilometers per hour.

It is launched from a very high altitude, and when it hits the target, it actually dives like a ballistic.

This missile has a lethal warhead weighing 950 kilograms.

It was she who demolished the house in Dnipro and the shopping center in Kremenchuk.

We will remind you that since the beginning of massive Russian attacks on the critical infrastructure of Ukraine, since September last year, Ukrainian air defense forces shot down up to 700 missiles fired by Russia.

650 Iranian drones were also destroyed.

Read also:

  • The Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces named new targets of massive Russian attacks

  • Why there are frequent air raid alarms in Ukraine: experts' explanation

  • Russia may be preparing a new missile attack: OC "South" announced a threat from the sea