Since the beginning of the invasion, Ukraine’s air defense has destroyed about 25 thousand Shaheds and 2.5 thousand cruise missiles, – Ignat
18 July 18:48
Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Ukrainian air defense has destroyed approximately 25,000 Shahed-type attack drones and about 2,500 cruise missiles.
This was announced by the head of the communications department of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Yuriy Ihnat, during a telethon, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
“The enemy is massively using kamikaze drones. In total, approximately 25 thousand Shaheds have been shot down since their use since October 2022. At the same time, the first drone of this type was destroyed. It is known that it was Iranian-made, but Russia is now deploying large-scale production of such UAVs on its own. Today, there are up to 350 launches per night, which is an anti-record number,” Ihnat said.
According to him, the summarized data on downed missiles will be made public closer to the Air Force Day on August 3. But we can already say that air defense destroyed about 2,500 cruise missiles. As for ballistic missiles, the figure is lower.
“In particular, out of about 160 Daggers launched by Russia, 48 were shot down. This is a very good result, given that these missiles appeared only in May 2023, and it was then that the first one was shot down,” Ihnat emphasized.
As reported, on the night of July 18, Ukraine’s air defense forces destroyed 11 of 35 drones launched by Russia. Another six were lost to radar surveillance.
