Highly professional officers with combat experience were assigned to the command staff of the Ukrainian Air Force under orders from Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander in chief said. They provided practical proposals on the development of so-called small air defense, leading to the adoption of the necessary management decisions.
“At the same time, not everything in this area depends solely on the professionalism and dedication of our servicemembers. Decisive factors remain the pace of work by Ukrainian and European manufacturers, as well as the supply of radar systems, unmanned aerial systems and interceptor drones from Western partners,” Syrskyi wrote.
He noted that Russian forces are constantly improving their means of attack, including equipping strike drones with satellite communication terminals from Starlink, exploiting difficult weather conditions and using other tactical solutions.
In addition, Syrskyi said, army aviation continues to be further engaged, with its helicopters having destroyed 5,830 Russian aerial attack assets over the entire period.
The commander in chief said he had heard reports on the effectiveness of destroying Shahed drones using different types of interceptor drones.
“It is important that in January, high results were demonstrated specifically by Ukrainian-made systems. We are recording positive dynamics in staffing newly created interceptor drone units. Additional crews are continuing their training,” Syrskyi wrote.
On Jan. 1, Robert Brovdi, commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, said the forces had neutralized four high-value Russian air defense systems in a single day.
On Jan. 2, operators of the 1st Separate Center of the Unmanned Systems Forces struck a fuel and lubricants storage base and radar facilities in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
On Jan. 6, the Unmanned Systems Forces reported that in the seven months since their creation, they had hit more than 168,000 Russian targets, with an estimated value of about $20 billion.