Former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Igor Romanenko, said that the US-made patriot air defense systems that Kiev is using are increasingly ineffective in intercepting Russian missile attacks.
According to Romanenko, Ukraine does not have many patriot complexes, and the effectiveness of the remaining has been reduced from behind to only 6% recently, suggesting that the reason is that Russia has upgraded the software for Iskander missiles, giving them increased speed and mobility when approaching targets.
Last week, a US source quoted unnamed Ukrainian and Western officials as saying that Russian missiles can now fly in the normal trajectory before suddenly landing directly or changing direction sharply at the end, making it "difficult to track and intercept" the patriot system.
A former Ukrainian official was quoted as describing the new mobility of Russian missiles as a factor that could change the situation.
According to this source, Moscow may have upgraded the Iskander-M ground-launch system and the Kinzhal rocket launched from the air.
Earlier, in May, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yury Ignat admitted that the flight trajectory of the Iskander-M missile had been improved and modernized.
The first patriot system was transferred to Ukraine in April 2023, provided by many NATO countries, including the US, Germany and the Netherlands.
