The Security Service of Ukraine's elite Alpha Group destroyed $4 billion worth of Russian air defense assets in 2025, the service, abbreviated as SBU, announced on 19 January.
The SBU called the impact "systematic."
“Corridors were broken through the Russian Federation's multilayered air defenses and safe passage was provided for Ukraine's long-range drones deep behind enemy lines, into bases, warehouses, airfields, and other military facilities."
On top of helping Ukraine’s deep strike campaign, each loss of air defense weapons and radar forces Russia to decide where to put its remaining assets, potentially opening new opportunities for Kyiv, multiple observers have told Euromaidan Press.
These opportunities are important. A recent report by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) found that Russia’s defense network is comprehensive, formidable, and has been improving since February 2022.
Degrading this network through financial — or kinetic — sanctions is necessary to improve the odds of degrading Russia’s economy and war machine.
Systems destroyed
According to the SBU, Alpha’s campaign took out premium systems like the S-400, as well as the S-300, including the intermediate S-350.
One recent example was the SBU's destruction of an S-400 system and two radars in Novorossiysk in November.
The SBU said it also destroyed Buk M1 and M2 medium-range air defense vehicles, in addition to shorter-range missile vehicles like the Tor M1, M2, and M3, and the Pantsir S1 and S2, which combine short-range SAMs with anti-air guns.
But that's not all. The SBU also said it inflicted "serious losses" to a wide range of Russian radar equipment, including the Nebo-U and Nebo-M, Podlyot, Niobium, Kasta-2E2, Gamma-D, Protyvnik-GE, 92N6, and multiple others.
Ukrainian defense outlet Militarnyi analyzed the SBU's footage and highlighted specific confirmed strikes caught on camera.
These including four 92N6E and one 96L6E radar systems from an S-400, plus a launcher group; two 9S32 radars from an S-300V designed to detect ballistic targets; and two radar stations believed to be 50N6A units from the S-350 Vityaz system.
The footage also shows the destruction of a Buk, plus its radar and attendant loading vehicle. Ukrainian drones destroyed three Pantsir-S2s, including two sitting inside a hangar, and took out two Tor-M2s and one Tor-M2D.
Other visually confirmed losses included ST-68 and P-18 Terek radar stations, two Nebo-M command posts, four Nebo-U systems, and two Nebo-SVU complexes. Strikes on the rare Protivnik-GE and Gamma-D radars — both advanced surveillance assets — were also documented.
Long-range systems
- S-400 Triumph: One of Russia’s more advanced air defense missile systems, with a range of up to 400 km. It can engage aircraft, cruise, and ballistic missiles.
- S-300: A long-range air defense missile system developed in the Soviet Union, which has since split into two dozen variants, with different ranges and use cases.
- S-350 Vityaz: An intermediate system, with ranges of 10 km to 120 km, depending on the missile and its targets.
Intermediate and short-range systems
- Buk: A series of self-propelled SAM systems, with ranges in the dozens of kilometers, depending on the missile. A Dutch investigation found that it was a Russian Buk’s 9M38 missile that destroyed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014.
- Tor: a short-range self-propelled SAM meant to engage planes, helicopters, drones, and missiles.
- Pantsir: a series of self-propelled systems that combine SAMs and autocannons. Used for point defense.
Radar
- Nebo-M and Nebo-U: integrated, multi-function radar systems. Their job is to detect a variety of flying targets over 600 kilometers away.
- Podlet: a three-coordinate radar system that provides targeting data for S-300 and S-400 systems, boasting the ability to detect very low-flying targets.
- Niobium: three-coordinate radar system designed to track air targets of all types, at ranges between five and 500 kilometers.
- Kasta 2E2: a two-coordinate ultra-high frequency survey station, meant to control airspace and ID air targets at low altitudes.
- Gamma-D and Protivnik-GE: three-coordinate radar systems meant to track high-altitude targets, in environments with intense electronic interference.
Russia’s formidable air defenses
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According to RUSI, fewer than 10% of Ukraine’s deep strikes hit protected targets inside Russia and fewer still do any significant damage, thanks to Russia’s air defenses.
Nevertheless, these defenses are “not insurmountable” and “can be penetrated and destroyed,” the authors wrote in the report.
Ukrainian forces have been forced to constantly come up with new ways to either sneak through, saturate, or destroy enemy air defenses, while Russia has adapted, in turn.
One weakness of Russia's air defense systems is their reliance on foreign components, including those imported from the US.
Multiple units at work
Other Ukrainian commands have been working as hard as the SBU in taking out Russian defenses, including the General Intelligence Directorate (GUR), the special operations forces, and others.
For example, the 412th Unmanned Systems Brigade 'Nemesis' took out an S-350, plus some self-propelled air defense vehicles just earlier this month.
In December, two S-400 launchers were destroyed by the 15th Separate Artillery Reconnaissance Brigade 'Black Forest,' by using strike drones while the launchers were being repositioned.
A foreign military source that has consulted the Ukrainian military told Euromaidan Press that these units are good at what they do: finding ways to destroy Russian targets.
However, these units would be even more effective if they operated more under a single doctrine and less as individual “fiefdoms,” each with their own list of targets, the source added.
