Find it, aim it, shoot it.
The exercise is the same for Ukraine’s air defense crews, as they work around the clock to combat the relentless barrage of missiles the Russians are launching on Kiev, usually to end the most intense bombing of the capital since the first weeks of the to thwart war.
In the month of May alone, Russia bombed Kiev 17 times. It has fired hypersonic missiles from MIG-31 fighter jets and attacked with land-based ballistic missiles powerful enough to flatten an entire apartment building. Russian bombers and ships have fired dozens of long-range cruise missiles and more than 200 attack drones have been used in blitzes designed to confuse and overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses.
It is a constant battle for Ukrainian defenders. Russian attacks can be brutal. They usually come at night, but sometimes during the day, such as Mondays.
Even if Ukraine succeeds in shooting missiles from the sky, falling debris could bring death and destruction. Early Thursday, Russia sent a salvo of 10 ballistic missiles into Kiev; Ukrainian officials said they were all shot, but falling fragments killed three people, including a child, and injured more than a dozen others.
But overall, very little has penetrated the complex and increasingly sophisticated air defense network around Ukraine’s capital, saving dozens of lives.
“We don’t have days off,” said Riabyi, the call sign of the 26-year-old “gunner,” who is part of a two-man anti-aircraft missile crew responsible for protecting just one patch of sky just outside Kiev.
Ukraine’s air defenses are a sewn-together patchwork of various weapons, many newly supplied by the West, protecting millions of civilians in Kiev and other cities, and guarding critical infrastructure, including four operating nuclear power plants. Tom Karako, the director of the Missile Defense Project at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, called it “kind of a dog’s breakfast” of systems.
There are hundreds of people like Riabyi, equipped with American-made Stinger missiles and other portable weapons. Many more use more complex launchers that have recently arrived, such as the Patriot (American), NASAMS (Norwegian American), and SAMP/T (Franco-Italian). Ukraine also uses German-made Gepard anti-aircraft guns and a mix of Soviet-era air defenses.
Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, said the recent airstrikes on the capital are a “massive and unprecedented” attack designed to exhaust air defense systems, deliver a powerful symbolic blow to the heart of the ancient capital and terror.
President Volodymyr Zelensky again thanked “the defenders of the sky” in his address to the nation on Tuesday evening. The battle in the air, he made clear, is just as important as the bloody battle fought by soldiers on land.
Air defense teams have managed to shoot down about 90 percent of incoming missiles and drones and, remarkably, 100 percent of ballistic missiles aimed at Kiev, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Those statistics could not be independently verified.
Air defense assets will also be critical in Ukraine’s impending counter-offensive – keeping newly acquired weapons safe as they go into battle and then providing cover for Ukrainian troops if they manage to break through Russian lines.
Riabyi and his partner, Oleg, 38, are responsible for protecting a sector of the sky about 10 square kilometers outside Kiev. When the alarm goes off, he said, they race from a base in the Kiev area to one of the few secret firing positions outside the city, pull the tarpaulin off a truck-mounted Stinger system and prepare.
“When an air target approaches our sector, our commander gives us the number one order: find and destroy,” he said, recently demonstrating the procedure at an undisclosed location outside Kiev.
After the team fires, their position is revealed and they have two minutes to move or risk being targeted.
On the side of the team’s truck, Ukrainian tridents mark their successes. The first two tridents represent Russian fighter jets that they allegedly shot down during the first days of the war. They said they had since shot down six Orlan reconnaissance drones, two Russian attack helicopters and two Iranian-made Shahed drones.
However, lasting success in the air is by no means assured.
Leaked Pentagon documents made public in April expressed deep concern that Russia could achieve air superiority now that Ukraine has run out of anti-aircraft missiles for Soviet-designed S-300 and Buk systems that are still form the backbone of the Ukrainian air defense.
Since that analysis was leaked, Ukraine’s Western allies have ramped up delivery of new systems and munitions. The arrival of two Patriot batteries in late April gave Ukraine the first system designed to shoot down ballistic missiles.
Still, Ukraine has to make difficult decisions about the deployment of limited resources.
Mr Karako of the Missile Defense Project said the recent attacks on Kiev showed “how stressful and challenging a joint airstrike can be”, underlining the need for Ukraine to continue building up its defenses as the Russians try to to exhaust.
While Ukrainian and Western officials have noted that Russia is likely to run out of precision missiles and rely more on less accurate missiles and drones, Moscow has shown it is still capable of carrying out strikes at a steady pace.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion 15 months ago, it has fired more than 5,000 missiles and drone strikes at targets across Ukraine, according to a recent study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
But like Russia’s ground offensives, the airstrikes failed to produce the strategic military effects Moscow desired, according to the study, and Ukraine’s air defenses “greatly determined the course of the war and limited Russian offensive power.”
Mr Yusov, the representative of Ukraine’s military intelligence, said the Russians changed tactics after bombing civilian infrastructure and cities in the winter and early spring failed to cripple Ukraine’s ability to function.
Moscow is now targeting more military installations to undermine Ukraine’s counter-offensive, he said, while also targeting Kiev as it remains “an unconquered target for the aggressor.”
Peter Mitchell, writing for the Modern War Institute at West Point, claimed the barrages are designed to fill the air with more incoming targets than the defenses can handle, “using a combination of land, sea or air-launched missile platforms. .”
For the citizens of Kiev, the near-nightly blitzes were exhausting and terrifying. The first alarm usually sounds after midnight and the attacks last for hours.
“I check the information to understand what is flying and from where,” said Natalia Ulianytska, 32, a human rights activist living in Kiev.
Many people follow Telegram channels that track radar reports, provide real-time information on impending threats, and they know how much time they can have between the howling of the air raid siren and the detonation of bombs.
If the threat comes from bombers taking off from one of the 39 Russian bases that Ukrainian officials say are being used to launch strikes, or from Iranian attack drones with a top speed of about 200 km/h, people in Kiev usually have a few hours to take cover.
But ballistic missiles are different. They can reach the capital within 15 minutes of launch, leaving little time to do more than run from windows and brace yourself.
“If there is a huge missile attack, I go to the bathroom with my cat,” said Ms. Ulianytska.
She said she was not scared so much as anxious and “very angry.”
She knows when the Russian drones and missiles arrive by the thunderous explosions in the sky. Even when air defense teams successfully shoot down a target, there is danger as fiery wreckage rains down on the streets below.
In Kiev, several people have been killed and injured by falling debris over the past month, and numerous businesses and apartment buildings have been damaged.
Riabyi, the shooter, said he had to learn on the job. He was still training at a base in western Ukraine when Russia invaded.
His wife, pregnant with their first child, fled their home north of Kiev before Russian soldiers could occupy the village; Riabyi was sent to Kiev.
His daughter was born in May, but he didn’t see her for the first time until December. They spent a few days together and then he had to return to his post to make sure she could sleep safely.
Anna Lukanova reporting contributed.
