Russia has begun to actively use ballistic missiles in recent strikes to destroy the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system (SAM).

This opinion was expressed on the air of the FREEDOM TV channel by military observer Denis Popovych.

He said ballistic missile strikes left IDP forces little time to respond, but the Ukrainian military shot down all targets.

"There was a similar case on Monday (May 29 – ed.) "Russia struck the capital with ballistic missiles. In particular, Iskanders were used. Such strikes are obviously related to the Russians' attempt to find and destroy the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system, the action of which hits their image very hard. After all, the air defense system regularly shoots down both Iskander missiles and Kinzhal missiles, which until now were considered impossible to shoot down by the Russians. Therefore, most likely, the Russians launched a wide hunt for the Patriot air defense system in order to receive some satisfaction and finally declare its destruction. But so far we see that the "match" is dry won by the American anti-aircraft system," Popovich said.

The expert suggests that the Russians still have about 70-80 missiles left, and every day they can produce three more.

"According to some estimates, they produce from 2 to 5 missiles of different nomenclatures per day. These are Kh-555, and Kh-101, and Kh-29, Kh-31, and "Iskander", "Daggers", "Calibers". But how much exactly they produce is very difficult to say. On average, if we take three missiles per day, we can assume that, taking into account the break from March 9 to April 28, they could safely produce 180 missiles, with a gap very large. About 90 more pieces could be produced from April 28 to today, in a month. 198 missiles were shot down (by Ukrainian air defense - ed.). Approximately they could have 70-80 missiles of different nomenclatures left," Popovich said.

The expert said that Russia has something to replenish its reserves, so it will not run out of missiles.

"Since they still produce missiles, I would not talk about complete exhaustion. The stock is replenished, according to the "gray" schemes come to them components. Therefore, to say that the stock will be completely depleted, in my opinion, makes no sense," Popovych summed up.

We will remind, earlier it was reported that the former Deputy Chairman of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant-General Igor Romanenko said that the Russian invaders began to use air strikes to weaken the offensive potential of Ukraine, as well as to disrupt the final stage of preparation of the Ukrainian military for a counteroffensive.

In addition, we previously reported that earlier military expert Oleksandr Kovalenko said that Russia had established production, so the invaders would never run out of missiles.

Read also:

• What does the actual depletion of air defense means - an expert's explanation
• The expert told why May was a record month in the number of shelling and attacks by Russia (video)
• The frequency of air attacks on Kyiv will decrease - military intelligence

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