Russia unlikely to have been successful in its attempts to deplete Ukraine’s air defenses – British intelligence

The UK Ministry of Defense said this in a new intelligence update on Twitter, Ukrinform reports.

Over the course of May 2023, Russia launched over 300 Iranian Shahed series one way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA-UAVs) against Ukraine: its most intense use of this weapon system to date.

“Russia is probably launching so many OWA-UAVs in an attempt to force Ukraine to fire stocks of valuable, advanced air defence missiles. Russia is unlikely to have been notably successful: Ukraine has neutralised at least 90% of the incoming OWA-UAVs mostly using its older and cheaper air defence weapons and with electronic jamming,” the ministry said.

Experts added that Russia has also likely been attempting to locate and strike Ukrainian forces well behind the front line.

“However, Russia remains very ineffective at hitting such dynamic targets at range because of its poor targeting processes,” the ministry said.

As reported by Ukrinform, the British intelligence in its previous update said that in Russia, repressions are further unfolding over the public display of blue and yellow colors against the background of the ongoing war in Ukraine, which emphasizes insecurity among Russian officials.