For the second day in a row, Russia launched an aerial barrage at Ukraine on Friday, but the Ukrainian military said it had intercepted all of the attacks, as the warring nations wage a lethal struggle of shifting offensive and defensive tactics.
The latest assault used 16 Iranian-made drones overnight, all of which were shot down, the Ukrainian air force said — a rare shutout, coming a day after Russian forces fired 70 cruise missiles and a smaller number of drones, some of which reached their targets.
The attack came as NATO’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, urged other countries to step up military support for Ukraine to fight off the Russian invasion, providing more weapons and — perhaps more important, he said — more ammunition for the weapons it already has. While there is likely to be a negotiated peace eventually, he said in an interview with the German news agency DPA, the military picture will determine the strength of Ukraine’s bargaining position.
“So if you want a negotiated peaceful solution ensuring that Ukraine prevails as an independent democratic state, the best way of achieving that is to provide Ukraine with military support,” he said.
For Ukraine, the Kremlin’s invasion in February put an initial premium on antitank weapons. As movement slowed to a crawl, more and better artillery became crucial. Each time, the West supplied the weapons.
After Ukraine’s forces began to mount successful counteroffensives and retake territory, the Kremlin shifted three months ago to increased aerial attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and its cities, leaving civilians without power, heat, cell service and sometimes water, in deadly winter weather.
That has made air defenses paramount for Ukraine. As those defenses have become more robust — again, with Western help — and more skilled, shooting down most of the incoming missiles and drones, the Russians have adopted the tactic of mass barrages, trying to overwhelm defensive systems in hopes that some warheads will reach their targets.
Running low on missiles, the Russians are relying more on drones bought from Iran. The drones are much cheaper but also pack less of a punch and are far easier to intercept. Ukrainian troops have sometimes used small arms to shoot them down, so the Russians tend to launch them in the dark.
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President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Friday, in his nightly video address, that air defenses had been a primary topic of a meeting he held earlier in the day with military leaders.