Mobile groups targeting Shaheds show high efficiency despite difficult weather conditions — military expert Zgurets

He shared his opinions with Espreso TV.

"The enemy is actively using Shahed drones, and these downing rates over the past night are very high. I was really surprised by this, because we understand that the lion's share of Shaheds are destroyed by mobile groups using MANPADS, machine guns and foreign systems, Gepards. The movement of these mobile brigades has been significantly hampered due to the recent snowfall. Even if they were in certain designated areas, the weather made their stay and work much more difficult. But we can see that the groups worked extremely effectively, which suggests that this element of air defense is gaining more and more power," the expert said.

Zgurets recalled that on November 28, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces held a meeting to discuss ways to strengthen air defense and foreign models that have proven to be quite effective.

"It is still necessary to strengthen these mobile units, and we see that they are working quite effectively. However, apart from the use of Shaheds, we do not see the enemy using long-range cruise missiles such as Kh-101. While there is a reported stockpile of up to 800 missiles, as mentioned by the Main Intelligence Directorate, there is a potential threat that the enemy might combine strikes, incorporating both Shaheds and cruise missiles," the Defense Express analyst emphasized.

He emphasized that Ukrainian forces are aware of this kind of threat and believes that the air defense will be prepared to address it.

"But we understand that we are a large country and it will be impossible to provide one hundred percent guarantee of air defense coverage for all facilities," Zgurets added.

• On the night of November 29, the Russian army launched drones and missiles on Ukraine. Ukrainian air defense destroyed 21 UAVs and 2 Kh-59 missiles.