Yuriy Ignat, the spokesman of the command of the Air Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, commented on the Ukrainiansʼ petition on the air of the "Kyiv" TV channel with a request to strengthen air defense in Kharkiv and other front-line regions.
According to him, the frontline cities (Kharkiv, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia) suffer primarily because of rocket and barrel artillery. And because of the threat of such shelling, the air alarm signal is also activated if there is information about shelling by "Grad", "Tornado" or "Uragan".
"People also perceive it as a missile attack, although it is an attack by rocket artillery, against which, unfortunately, air defense is powerless," Ignat explained, adding that anti-aircraft missile complexes also cannot shoot down such targets, since an anti-aircraft missile is designed to shoot down other air targets, at the same time the "package" "Grad" (40 rockets) flies for a few minutes.
The spokesman of the Air Force emphasized that it is necessary to more decisively crush the enemy where he is making these strikes. For this, in particular, the strengthening of armaments from international partners is necessary.
- The day before, Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to a petition to strengthen the air defense of Kharkiv and the oblast. She won 25,296 votes out of the 25,000 required. The President instructed Valery Zaluzhny to consider the possibility of strengthening the anti-aircraft defense and to inform the petitioner about the results of this consideration.