Last night, Ukraine's air defence shot down a missile launched by Russia and 29 out of 31 attack drones. However, such results cannot always be achieved due to the lack of air defence assets.
Russia has been stepping up attacks with Iranian-made Shahed strike drones, so weapons and ammunition are essential to protect infrastructure, the spokesman for the Air Force Command, Yuriy Ihnat, has told the news telethon.
"As we can see, the enemy continues to strike at industrial facilities, we have already seen attacks on food production facilities. We have to strengthen our efforts, of course," he said.
Ihnat explained that Russia is increasing attacks with drones, as they are easier and faster to manufacture than missiles. Today, Ukraine's air defence is focused on protecting critical infrastructure and large cities. The percentage of missiles and strike drones being shot down is approximately the same.
To shoot down drones, Ukraine needs more Gepards and similar systems.
Gepard is a German self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery system manufactured by Krauss-Maffei in cooperation with other companies. It uses a modified chassis from the Leopard 1 tank and an artillery unit based on two 35 mm Oerlikon KDA cannons.