Ballistic missiles are accounting for a growing share of Russia’s increasingly deadly attacks on Ukrainian cities, as Moscow unleashes a new bombing strategy seeking to exploit a global shortage of US-made Patriot air defense systems. For the first time, concentrated Russian bombardments aimed at one primary target are featuring dozens of ballistic missiles, while also involving hundreds of drones and other missile types in a bid to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses.
If current trends continue, Russia is on track to launch more than a thousand ballistic missiles this year, a nearly fifteenfold increase compared to 2023. This comes as Ukrainian air defense units continue to grapple with dangerously low stocks of Patriot PAC-3 interceptor missiles, the only countermeasure that has consistently proven effective against Russian ballistic threats.
Described by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Russia’s “last major advantage on the battlefield,” ballistic missiles fly at much faster speeds and higher altitudes than other missiles and drones, making them significantly more difficult to intercept. Ukraine now regularly shoots down roughly 90 percent of drones and 80 percent of cruise missiles, but less than one-third of ballistic missiles.
