The Air Force reported that a large number of decoy drones were used during the attack on Kyiv
During one of the large-scale attacks on Kyiv, Russian forces deployed up to 90% decoy drones, the Air Force reported on May 19. According to military officials, this tactic is designed to overload Ukraine’s air defense system and make it more difficult to detect combat drones amid the decoys.
Yuriy Ignat, head of the Communications Department of the Ukrainian Air Force, spoke about this during a televised marathon.
Ignat said that a few weeks ago, during an attack on Kyiv, about 90% of the drones were decoys of the “Parody” type.
“The Russians decided to test the alertness of our air defense,” he said.
According to him, the enemy is attempting to overload the Ukrainian air defense system, forcing it to respond to a large number of decoys and expend scarce ammunition.
He added that under such conditions, the quantitative factor plays an important role, since even decoy drones force the air defense system to operate at full capacity.
“There were indeed a lot here, but this is just one example; usually, the enemy uses up to 60% ‘Shahed’-type drones, and the rest are ‘Gerbera’ and various ‘Parody’-type decoy drones,” Ignat said.
He emphasized that it is necessary to respond to all types of threats regardless of their nature.
As of May 15, 2026, 257 combat engagements were recorded on the front lines. Ukrainian defense forces continue to repel the Russian occupiers’ offensive, inflicting significant losses on the enemy.
Over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian defenders have repelled a large-scale offensive by Russian occupiers, recording a total of 158 combat engagements across the entire front line.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine also thwarted a Russian offensive planned for March.
