Only some Air Force crews are successfully shooting down "Shaheds," says Yelizarov
Of the more than 300 crews in the Ukrainian Air Force, only a fraction have demonstrated high effectiveness in shooting down Russian “Shahed” kamikaze drones. At the same time, a significant number of units have not shot down a single drone in a year.
This was revealed in an interview with “Ukrainska Pravda” by Deputy Commander of the Air Force, Colonel Pavlo Yelizarov.
According to Yelizarov, an analysis of the performance of units operating interceptor drones revealed a significant difference in effectiveness.
“We conducted an experiment in one region and tried to implement our model. There were 28 crews there—and 24 of them did not shoot down a single drone over the past year,” he noted.
Subsequently, the analysis covered more than 300 crews. The results were uneven:
- 66 crews destroyed more than 10 “Shaheds” each
- some showed lower results
- 170 crews did not shoot down a single drone in a year
“We went further. We took all the crews under our command—more than 300 of them. Of those, 66 shot down more than 10 ‘Shaheds,’ while the rest shot down fewer than 10. And 170 crews didn’t shoot down a single one over the course of the year,” Yelizarov emphasized.
The deputy commander stressed that Ukraine has sufficient mobilization resources, but their effective use remains key.
“When we talk about human resources—whether there are many or few—I believe that even the resources that have already been mobilized are sufficient for us. They simply need to be used effectively, structured, and analyzed,” he added.
On the night of April 30, Russia carried out a large-scale air attack on Ukraine, using an Iskander-M ballistic missile and 206 strike drones of various types.
Chernihiv came under attack by Russian forces. According to preliminary reports, one of the drones struck an administrative building in the city. At least two people were injured in the strike.
This afternoon, April 30, Russian troops attacked the suburbs of Dnipro with strike drones. The shelling sparked a fire, resulting in one fatality and one injury.
