Ukraine needs 25 Patriots to repel combined enemy attacks - Air Force

Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Illia Yevlash said this at a briefing at the Ukraine-Ukrinform Media Center.

"Ukraine needs 25 Patriot air defense systems that could protect our cities from enemy attacks. Of course, we lack many other assets that could protect the airspace. We also need portable systems that are used by mobile fire groups," Yevlash said.

According to him, now there is a need to develop a whole deeply echeloned air defense system that will include short-, medium- and long-range air defense equipment with the support of fighter aircraft.

"If we talk about small systems, then these are air defense systems mainly of the Ground Forces, such as Crotale, Avenger, Gepard, which have proven themselves quite effective. There was talk of the transfer of Skynex systems to our countries - these are so-called drone fighters. These are medium-range systems such as IRIS-T, NASAMS and other assets that will allow us to protect cities and destroy missiles and drones. And there are long-range Patriot and SAMP/T systems," he said.

For the overnight attack, according to him, the enemy used almost all available missiles, including Kh-59 air-to-air missiles and Kh-47 Kinzhal ballistic missiles.

"Last night, nine Tu-95MS strategic bombers took to the air. They were operating from Olenegorsk, the Olenya airfield. They launched Kh-101 and Kh-555 missiles in the Saratov region. The enemy fired 20 missiles, and the anti-aircraft missile units of the Ukrainian Air Force managed to down 16 of them. MiG-31Ks, carriers of Kh-47 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, took to the air. This is quite a powerful weapon. Unfortunately, we are not yet able to fully repel such enemy attacks, because for this we need the systems that have already proven their effectiveness many times and we have already used them. This is the Patriot air defense system. We need them today to fight against such combined attacks," Yevlash said.

According to him, the enemy also used Kh-59 air missiles.

"Four missiles of this type were fired, and our air defense forces managed to down two of them. [The enemy also used] 40 unmanned aerial vehicles that distracted attention while S-300 and S-400 air defense systems were delivering powerful strikes," Yevlash said.

Earlier reports said that Ukraine's air defense units destroyed 57 out of 82 drones and missiles launched by Russian forces late on April 10 and early on April 11.