Russia’s air defense is short of surface-to-air missile systems and other assets, prompting efforts to link obsolete Soviet-era hardware with systems it presents as “new,” according to Ukrainian Defense Intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov.
He said Russia is trying to fold aging S-300s, newer S-400s and the “new” S-350 Vityaz into a single network to “patch holes” in its air defenses. The mixed system is intended to shield military plants and fuel-and-energy facilities inside Russia, he said.
Yusov noted air-defense assets are deployed across all major Russian cities and cover select military, strategic and politically significant sites. Still, he said, Ukraine’s military has carried out near-daily strikes on targets vital to Russia’s defense industry. For example, he claimed Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian refineries have reduced oil refining by about 20%.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said overnight on October 31 that its air defenses shot down 130 Ukrainian drones over several regions. Even so, Ukrainian forces struck military and strategic sites, according to Ukrainian officials. In Vladimir, drones flew roughly 600 kilometers to hit a key substation, igniting a fire, and UAVs also “visited” a thermal power plant in the Russian city of Oryol, they said.
Ukraine says its strikes on Russian energy facilities are in response to Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. On October 30, Russia’s military launched a large-scale strike on Ukraine’s power system, prompting grid operator Ukrenergo to implement emergency power cuts in nearly every region.
