Naiev: Gepard guns effective in destroying Shahed drones

Ukraine's Joint Forces Commander, Lieutenant General Serhii Naiev, said this at a meeting with the defenders of Kyiv's airspace, Ukrinform reports.

Source: Official page of Lieutenant General Serhii Naiev

"We are constantly working to improve the efficiency and skills of our fighters. The Ukrainians must be sure that mobile fire groups in their area of responsibility do not give the enemy any chance," the commander said.

The press service of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Command added on Facebook that during a meeting with the defenders of the Ukrainian capital's airspace, Naiev noted their "extraordinary efficiency in destroying" enemy targets.

"The enemy continues attempts to destroy our energy system, sending dozens of combat kamikaze drones to our country. But anti-aircraft fighters from mobile air defense groups are proving their professionalism and extraordinary efficiency in destroying these targets around the clock," he said.

Naiev said that in the last two weeks alone, fighters of mobile groups had shot down dozens of drones used by the Russians to attack Ukraine.

Among the enemy drones, there were some that Ukrainian air defense forces had to deal with for the first time. Most of them were black and had a modified exhaust system, Naiev said.

In this way, the Russian invaders tried to mislead mobile fire groups.

"But our fighters are professionals in their field. Therefore, these kamikaze drones could not pass by their effectively built air defense system," the commander said.

According to him, today the mobile fire groups are armed with both large-caliber machine guns and various anti-aircraft missile systems, including Soviet Igla surface-to-air missile systems and German-made Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns.

"By the way, the Gepards do not miss a single Shahed," Naiev said.

He explained that the greatest value of this system is the radar. The Gepard can detect in advance the direction from which air targets are coming and determine their azimuth and altitude. Accordingly, based on these data, various weapons are effectively used.

The commander also thanked the German government for sending such modernized equipment to Ukraine.

On November 25, Kyiv's air defense forces hit more than 60 enemy air targets during the largest drone attack on the Ukrainian capital.

In total, during the air attack, Ukrainian air defenses destroyed 74 out of 75 Shahed-131/136 UAVs.