Ukraine runs out of rockets for Buk and S-300 systems

In early May, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be left without rockets for S-300 and Buk-M1 air defense systems, British Army Colonel Stuart Crawford said.

Kyiv pins all hopes to Western air defence systems now, military expert Yuri Knutov believes. 

Ukraine already receives SAMP-T Mamba air defence systems from France, IRIS-T - from Germany, Patriot and NASAMS - from the United States and Norway.

The Russian Armed Forces have changed tactics and now use "smart" bombs instead of cruise missiles. Smart bombs are cheaper and they can bypass Ukrainian air defense systems. It is only Patriot systems that can cope with them, but it's like using gold bullets to shoot sparrows, Yuri Knutov said. One Patriot missile is worth as much as $3 million. Needless to say that this ia a lot more expensive than one FAB-500 or other Russian bombs.

In addition, Russia has anti-radar missiles to detect enemy air defenses. Therefore, all Patriots, NASAMS and other air defence systems will always remain under the threat of impact. To crown it all, Ukraine does not have enough of such systems to ensure the protection of all of its strategic facilities.