Defense Brief: Russian forces have now established an air strike cycle occurring approximately every two weeks

At dawn on July 2, Russian forces launched another large-scale, multi-branch joint air attack on Ukraine, with Kyiv as the primary target. Similar intensive strikes were also reported on June 2 and June 15, indicating that Russia has fixed a roughly two-week rhythm for planning such attacks.

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia deployed a total of 570 aerial strike assets in this operation, including 74 missiles of various types and 496 drones; the interception results achieved by Ukraine’s air defense forces are as follows:

- 34 Kh-101 cruise missiles: 32 successfully intercepted;

- All 8 Kalibr cruise missiles were shot down;

- All 4 Kh-59/69 missiles successfully intercepted;

- Out of 496 drones, 476 were destroyed.

The Ukrainian Air Force stated that the most challenging aspect lies in intercepting ballistic and hypersonic weapons: Of the 24 Iskander-M and S-400 ballistic missiles launched by Russia, only 4 were intercepted; of the 4 Zircon hypersonic missiles fired, Ukraine failed to intercept a single one.

Comparing this to the attack on June 15, when 5 out of 6 Zircon missiles were intercepted and 15 out of 34 ballistic missiles were shot down; during the June 2 attack, although Zircons could not be stopped, 11 out of 33 ballistic missiles were successfully intercepted.

According to Ukrainian sources, the core reason for the continuous decline in intercept capability against such targets is the severe shortage of Patriot air defense systems—these are currently the only effective means for countering ballistic threats. Russia appears to have precisely exploited this weakness in planning its concentrated strikes. Throughout June, Russia repeatedly conducted isolated ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv without accompanying large-scale hybrid missile formations.

On the morning of July 2, Russia launched a total of 74 missiles and 496 drones, resulting in 25 ballistic missiles and 12 attack drones successfully hitting 33 locations.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1869600789881920/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.