Russian ballistic missiles are pounding Zelensky’s air bases
In a brutal and terrifying three days, Russia has wreaked havoc on the tiny, battered Ukrainian air force – lofting drones to surveil the air force’s front-line airfields and then firing ballistic missiles to destroy hard-to-replace warplanes.
As the missile campaign continues and the toll mounts – four or five aircraft were destroyed in 72 hours – it’s increasingly clear just one thing can save what’s left of Ukrainian air power. More Western-made air defenses.
But they’d better come fast.
The current wave of attacks began on July 1, when a Russian drone spotted six Ukrainian air force Sukhoi Su-27 fighters parked in the open in broad daylight on the tarmac at Mirgorod air base, 100 miles from Ukraine’s northern border with Russia.
A Russian Iskander ballistic missile struck, destroying two of the supersonic fighters.
The next day, it happened again. A Russian drone flew circles over the Ukrainian air base in Poltava, just east of Mirgorod. After hours of surveillance, another Iskander missile struck – damaging, if not destroying, a Ukrainian army Mil Mi-24 gunship helicopter.
The attacks continued on July 3. This time the Russians targeted Dolgintsevo air base near Kryvyi Rih, 45 miles from the front line in southern Ukraine. A drone scanned the base, and as many as three Iskanders rained down, destroying what appeared to be a Ukrainian air force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 fighter.
Each of the attacks was preventable. If the Ukrainians had promptly shot down the drones, the Russians wouldn’t have known where to aim their Iskanders. But they didn’t shoot down the drones. There’s no evidence they even tried.
It’s apparent why. Normally, the Ukrainian air force would protect its most bases with layers of surface-to-air missiles. But the Ukrainians are struggling to simultaneously protect cities, front-line brigades and vulnerable bases such as the Mirgorod, Poltava and Dolgintsevo airfields.
Between them, the Ukrainian army and air force began Russia’s wider war on Ukraine with around 400 surface-to-air missile systems. Twenty-eight months later, the Ukrainians have lost around 140 of those systems and acquired – mostly from their foreign allies – around a hundred as replacements.
Join the conversation
More stories
More from News
More from The Telegraph
