Russia attempted to exhaust Ukraine’s air defense system with mass, combined strikes in April. However, Ukraine managed to intercept nearly 6,000 aerial targets, according to the Ministry of Defense.
In comparison, during last year's Russian attack, 19 drones reached Poland, a NATO member country. Polish air defenses could down only four of them.
The intensity of attacks has remained at record levels for the second consecutive month, yet air defense effectiveness has remained consistently around 90%.
Nearly 6,000 targets destroyed in sky despite waves
“The intensity of enemy attacks has remained at record levels for the second month in a row. However, the effectiveness of drone interceptions is close to 90%, reaching 92–95% on certain days,” the report said.
In April, Ukrainian air defense intercepted 5,950 aerial targets, including various types of missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Mass drone attacks, but most fail to reach their targets
The majority of aerial attacks consisted of strike drones. Over the month, 6,583 UAVs of the “Shahed", “Gerbera,” “Italmas,” and other types were launched, of which 5,861 were intercepted — an interception rate of over 89%.
Missiles penetrate less often, but air defenses withstand combined strikes
In addition to drones, the enemy used 141 missiles of various types, of which 89 were intercepted. During mass attacks involving 600–700 simultaneous aerial targets, interception rates remained at 92–95%.
The most illustrative case occurred on 15 April: during a combined drone and missile strike, 21 cruise missiles were launched, 20 of which were shot down.
Despite the complexity of such attacks, Ukrainian air defenders demonstrated very high effectiveness. In particular, F-16 fighter jets reportedly played a major role in intercepting cruise missiles.
Unfortunately, the situation regarding ballistic missile interception remains difficult. Due to their high speed and trajectory, they can only be intercepted by systems such as Patriot, and Ukraine currently faces a shortage of interceptor missiles for these systems.
Earlier, Ukraine said Russia was preparing an “air wave” intended to cover Ukraine. Moscow's overall goal is to produce 1,000 drones per day, a 3x increase from previous production levels. To counter this, Kyiv needs around 2,000–3,000 interceptors, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed.
