The UK Ministry of Defense has analyzed the state of Russian air defense in Ukraine in its daily report.
Over the past week, Russia has lost at least four long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) launchers as a result of Ukrainian strikes over the past week.
On October 26, 2023, Russian media reported that three SA-21 systems were destroyed in the Luhansk region. But Ukrainian sources say that Russian air defense suffered additional losses in the annexed Crimea.
Russia has long relied on a large number of high-tech long-range air defense systems, a key component of its military strategy.
The recent Russian losses show that the air defense system of the Russian Armed Forces is very vulnerable to modern precision weapons. And, apparently, Russia will have to increase the already significant workload on the remaining installations and operators.
There is a real possibility that in order to make up for the SAMs destroyed in Ukraine, Russia will withdraw them from their positions in other combat areas and thereby weaken its air defense.
Background. Zaluzhnyi wrote an article for The Economist in which he emphasized that the war risks turning into a positional war, which is bad for us and good for Russia. He named five main priorities in weapons and technology that would help remedy this situation.