Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military and political observer at the Information Resistance group, used visualizations of missile trajectories and types of munitions to explain what happened on July 8 as a result of the missile attacks in Kyiv.
He still believes that the echeloned air defense system formed in Kyiv is one of the best in Europe, if not the best. After all, due to the massive combined attack by Russia, Ukrainian air defense failed to repel all the missiles.
Flight analysis
The expert draws attention to the range of missiles used to attack Kyiv. These are the missiles:
- Х-101/555 (air-launched subsonic cruise missile with a maximum speed of 960 km/h), launched from the Caspian region with separation into different trajectories during the flight;
- 3M14 Kalibr (a sea-launched subsonic cruise missile with a maximum speed of 960 km/h), launched from the Sea of Azov;
- X-47M2 “Kinzhal”, an aerial ballistic missile with a speed of over 10 thousand km/h;
- 3M22 “Zircon”, speed less than 10 thousand km/h.
The combined complex of different missiles struck Kyiv from 10:15 to 10:45, which means that the attack was synchronized in time.
Why the air defense did not work
“In other words, the Kyiv air defense system had to repel an attack from a variety of weapons (I mentioned the specifications for a reason) in the shortest possible time, each type of weapon requiring its own countermeasure algorithm, provided the enemy used different flight paths, which distracted attention to the utmost,” Kovalenko writes.
In his opinion, the Russian terrorist army thought out the attack in detail. The Ukrainians, as usual, lacked air defense systems, especially on approach.
“If you look at the map, if there were enough air defense systems in Chernihiv and Sumy regions, where the X-101/555 flew, they would have shot down a significant number of these missiles. Or the Kalibr missiles that flew all over Ukraine,” the expert says.
Ukraine lacks the air defense capabilities to completely close its airspace. And while Western partners are in no hurry to resolve this issue, Russia is taking advantage of the situation to spread its terror.