All Russian air defense at the front: Ukrainian drones fly freely in the rear areas of the Russia

Successful attacks by Ukrainian drones deep inside Russian territory indicate a significant degradation of Russia's air defense system, George Barros, an expert on Russia at the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), told Business Insider.

He noted that Ukrainian aircraft had begun to penetrate into areas where, in theory, they should not have been allowed in. "Russian air defense should have been able to destroy them very easily," he stressed.

The expert recalled that at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia's air defense was a formidable adversary for Ukrainian aviation. The Russians shot down Ukrainian planes and missiles, largely depriving Ukraine of access to Russian airspace.

But over time, Russia's air defenses became "stretched," which gave Ukraine new opportunities. Russia "neglected to protect territories" that are not near Ukraine, he said. Then, starting in the spring of 2024, Ukraine was able to sideline Russia's air defenses "very deliberately."

Many Russian air defense systems have been damaged and destroyed by Ukraine, and now the Ukrainian Armed Forces are attacking targets that were previously unreachable. The expert notes that now the main problem for Ukraine is to break through the border areas of the Russian Federation, saturated with air defense, and then the territory of the aggressor "is not properly protected."

Barros cites the April strike on Tatarstan, which is more than 1,200 km from Ukraine, as a clear example of this. A small plane, converted by the Ukrainians into a kamikaze drone, was able to cover such a huge distance without hindrance.

"This incident was very revealing and showed that the Russians probably have positioned their air defenses in such a way that they have good coverage in the immediate theater around Ukraine. But beyond that, they don't have that," Barros said.

ISW said Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries "continue to put pressure on Russia's air defense umbrella and force Russian military commanders to prioritize the allocation of limited air defense assets to cover what they believe to be high-value targets."

Recall, on July 27, Ukrainian drones struck the enemy military airfields "Engels" in the Saratov region, "Dyagilevo" in the Ryazan region, and "Olenya" in the Murmansk region. An oil refinery in Ryazan was also attacked. It is known that two long-range supersonic bomber-missile carriers TU-22M3 were damaged at the "Olenya" airfield.

İn July, Ukraine launched more long-range drones than Russia for the first time. According to Forbes, Russia launched 426 Shahed drones against Ukraine in July. During the same period, Ukraine launched more than 520 long-range drones.

Tags: #Ukriane, #Russia, #Putin, #Putler, #Russian invasion of Ukraine, #Zelenski, #Kiev, #Kyiv, #Kadirov army, #Kadirov, #Kherson, #Bucha, #Kharkiv, #Ukrainian pilots, #vagners, #Russian tanks, #NATO, #drones, #Moscow, #Kreml, #war victims #Ukraina, News, The Washington Post, waPo Video, Washington Post Video, Washington Post YouTube, a:politics, aid, biden, putin, s:Politics, support, t:Other, Ukraine, war, fact check, news coverage, Donald Trump, news, wp video, forbes, nytimes, newspaper, media, journalism, Ilham Aliyev, Baku, Azerbaijan, Israel, Gaza, Palestine, Tel-Aviv, Garabag, Karabakh, football, ronaldo, messi, brian tyler cohen