In the\u00a0snow-filled\u00a0skies above Ukraine, a deadly game\u00a0is playing out. <\/p>\n
Russia began the new year with a barrage of air attacks, including the heaviest night of missile strikes since the war began, as Ukraine battles to meet\u00a0an\u00a0evolving threat with its limited supply of Western defense systems. <\/p>\n
International analysts say the onslaught of Russian missiles, stockpiled for months,\u00a0aims to\u00a0<\/strong>overwhelm Ukraine\u2019s limited missile defense. <\/p>\n This approach\u00a0has had some success.\u00a0According to the Ukrainian authorities, Ukraine only managed to shoot down 18 of the 51 missiles fired at the country on January 8. <\/p>\n New tactics have also come into play. <\/p>\n Some changes are\u00a0simple: Russia has started painting its Iranian-made\u00a0drones black, camouflaging them against the night sky. <\/p>\n With\u00a0Ukrainian\u00a0media reports of jet-powered drones replacing\u00a0Russia\u2019s\u00a0slower propeller-powered models, officials have acknowledged it\u2019s a threat that\u2019s on their radar. <\/p>\n Speaking on national TV,\u00a0Ukrainian\u00a0air force command spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said\u00a0a jet-powered\u00a0version\u00a0of the Iranian\u00a0Shahed drones favored by Moscow would function \u201clike a mini\u00a0cruise missile.\u201d <\/p>\n They are likely to have a smaller payload but much faster cruising speeds, perhaps more than 500 kilometers per\u00a0hour (311\u00a0miles per hour),\u00a0he said,\u00a0making them harder to shoot down.\u00a0Ukrainian officials haven\u2019t yet confirmed if these drones have been used in Ukraine. <\/p>\n In a\u00a0frozen\u00a0field outside Kyiv, soldiers conducted drills\u00a0with a mobile air defense truck, ready to fire within minutes of pulling up. <\/p>\n \u201cThey used to fly in a single trajectory, but now they zigzag. A drone can fly, then circle, hover, go down completely, then rise about half a kilometer, then fly sharply down. They are now very maneuverable and must be seen and destroyed,\u201d Yasinsky said of the Iranian\u00a0Shaheds. <\/p>\n On cloudy nights,\u00a0the defenders\u00a0can be forced to use their ears more than their eyes to aim, listening out\u00a0for the tell-tale whine of the\u00a0Shahed\u2019s motor engine. <\/p>\n But it\u2019s small, mobile units like Yasinsky\u2019s that Ukraine is counting on to protect civilians and key infrastructure,\u00a0especially from the\u00a0<\/strong>slow-flying drones. <\/p>\n Sited within a network of advanced Western missile defense systems, like the American Patriot or German IRIS-T batteries \u2013 best suited to deal with the fastest Russian missiles \u2013 these small teams provide cheaper, more plentiful muscle to the defense of Ukraine\u2019s skies. <\/p>\n But they\u2019re still grateful for the weapons. <\/p>\n In videos of Ukrainian air defense units downing drones or missiles, the joy in the\u00a0soldiers\u2019\u00a0voices\u00a0is almost child-like. <\/p>\n Every hit\u00a0likely saves Ukrainian lives or infrastructure\u00a0and helps to chip away at Russia\u2019s resources. <\/p>\n In January, US officials\u00a0revealed Russia\u2019s use of North Korean ballistic missiles in attacks on Ukrainian cities, likely a sign of the pressure on Moscow\u2019s stockpiles and domestic production of long-range weaponry. <\/p>\n Ukrainian authorities are still analyzing debris from the latest strikes to discern the missiles\u2019 origin.<\/strong> <\/p>\n The deadly strikes were preceded by flocks of drones and individual missiles along different routes,\u00a0<\/strong>pawns sacrificed\u00a0to map Ukrainian defenses and weak spots, he said. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is defense industry facilities that are targeted now. And though it is not officially admitted, a substantial share of these missiles reached their targets,\u201d he said,\u00a0also noting that the effectiveness of each interceptor missile fired at incoming Russian projectiles is high. <\/p>\n The Ukrainian air defense is working \u201cat the edge of its capacity,\u201d\u00a0Melnyk said,\u00a0often hitting more than 70% of its targets and sometimes all of them. <\/p>\n Stopping more missiles would require more interceptor missile batteries, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday his country is \u201csorely lacking.\u201d\u00a0Ukraine is currently unable to produce modern air defense systems with its partners, he said. <\/p>\n But in order to stem the tide of Russian fire, Ukraine needs to target Moscow\u2019s batteries across the border \u2013 a tough challenge,\u00a0given Kyiv\u2019s limited access to long-range missiles or artillery systems of its own. <\/p>\n \u201cRussia is learning its lessons,\u201d Melnyk said, sending missiles\u00a0<\/strong>to\u00a0where\u00a0it knew they could not be intercepted. <\/p>\n Images of Kyiv commuters crowded into the city\u2019s subway system during the early January air raids evoked painful memories of last winter\u2019s onslaught by Russia from the air. <\/p>\n A small number of Ukrainians have died in January\u2019s attacks, but the country is still smarting from the 33 people killed in Kyiv on December 29 in strikes that destroyed 100 houses and 45 high-rise buildings, according to Ukraine\u2019s president. <\/p>\n In response, Zelensky vowed to \u201cbring the war\u201d back to Russia. <\/p>\n Despite the joy in blunting Russia\u2019s attacks in the air when his comrades score hits,\u00a0\u201cSmeta,\u201d a soldier in an air defense unit outside Kyiv, still feels the pain of each missile they can\u2019t bring down to earth. <\/p>\n\n In the\u00a0snow-filled\u00a0skies above Ukraine, a deadly game\u00a0is playing out. Russia began the new year with a barrage of air attacks, including the heaviest night of missile strikes since the war began, as Ukraine battles to meet\u00a0an\u00a0evolving threat with its limited supply of Western defense systems. International analysts say the onslaught of Russian missiles, stockpiled for <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13879,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Every shoot-down\u00a0is\u00a0a victory<\/h2>\n
Defenses stretched to the limit<\/h2>\n
Civilian deaths<\/h2>\n