Ukrainian Air Defense Shoots Down 2,500 Missiles Since War Began

20 August, 2024 The launcher of the Buk-M1 air defense system of one of the battalions of the Ukrainian Air Force. Photo credits: AFU Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russian invaders have used 9,627 missiles against Ukraine.

Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said that Ukraine shot down 2,429 of them. "Since the beginning of the large-scale aggression, the enemy has used more than 9.6 thousand missiles and almost 14,000 attack drones. Over 2.4 thousand missiles and 9.2 thousand drones were destroyed by air defense systems," added Syrskyi.

In total, the Russian military used:

• 111 Kinzhal missiles (28 downed);
• 894 Kalibr missiles (443 downed);
• 1846 X-555/101 missiles (1441 downed);
• 211 Onyx missiles (12 downed);
• 202 Iskander-K missiles (76 downed);
• 15 Kh-35 (1 downed);
• 57 other missiles (0 downed);
• 362 Kh-22/32 (2 downed);
• 1300 Iskander-M/KN-23 from the DPRK (56 downed);
• 6 Zircon missiles (2 downed);
• 68 Tochka-Us (6 downed);
• 1547 Kh-25/29/31/35/58/59/60 (343 downed);
• 3008 S-300/400 (19 downed).

Graphics of launched and downed Russian missiles during the Russian-Ukrainian war.

08/20/2024. Graphics by Oleksandr Syrskyi

The missiles targeted 5,197 civilian sites and 1,988 military targets. According to Syrskyi, since the beginning of the full-scale war, the Russians have also used 13,997 attack drones against Ukraine, 9,272 of which have been shot down.

The country was attacked by:

• 13,315 Shaheds (8836 downed);
• 682 other drones (430 downed).

Drones attacked 1,022 civilian sites and 3,697 military targets. It also became known that Russian troops spent 400.63 thousand artillery rounds, or an average of 44.5 thousand per day, between August 6 and 14, 2024.

This is three times more than the Ukrainian Armed Forces are spending--131.46 thousand, or 14.6 thousand per day, respectively.

Costs of artillery ammunition in the Russian-Ukrainian war.

08/20/2024. Graphics by Oleksandr Syrskyi

"The enemy maintains a high intensity of artillery shelling at the positions of our troops in eastern and southern Ukraine. Currently, it is using up to 45,000 rounds of ammunition daily," said Syrskyi.

At the same time, according to the data provided by Syrskyi, the ratio of 3:1 consumption of artillery ammunition in July-August 2024 is significantly better than the situation in January-May 2024: 7:1, or about 70,000 to 10,000 daily.

155mm artillery ammunition.

Photo credits: Radio Svoboda

Syrsky recalled that in October-December 2023, Russian troops were spending over 30,000 artillery rounds per day, while the Armed Forces of Ukraine were spending up to 10,000.

In August-September 2023 the Russians were firing about 20,000 rounds per day, compared to approximately 13,000 rounds spent daily by Ukrainian defenders.