July was Ukraine’s deadliest month for civilians since 2022 — and Russia is scaling its ballistic missile salvos toward 200 at once
Kyiv's unmanned-forces commander warns the Kremlin is racing to swamp a depleted air shield, echoing intelligence that Moscow now overfulfills its monthly weapons plans.
In July 2024, Ukraine experienced its deadliest month for civilians since the start of the conflict in 2022, with Russia launching a record number of ballistic missiles and drone strikes. Robert Magyar, commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, warned that the plan to scale up to 200 simultaneous missile salvos is one of the country's gravest weak points.
The Ukrainian military's main defense against such attacks is the US-made Patriot, but its stocks of interceptors are critically low. During mass barrages, dozens of warheads slip through and reach their targets. Russia currently has the capability to fire a simultaneous salvo of 77 ballistic missiles, with plans to increase this number to 200.
Despite this, air defenses managed to shoot down only 29 of the 195 missiles fired by Russia that month, a mere 15%. The largest single-night launches recorded so far have been a few dozen missiles, well below the 77-missile salvo proposed by Magyar. Even if Russia manages to scale back to half of that figure, the impact on Ukrainian defenses would still be significant.
Deputy Military Intelligence Chief Vadym Skibitskyi stated that Russia's defense industry is exceeding monthly production targets by 110% to 120%. In July, Russia produced 110% to 120% of its planned output for the Kh-101 cruise missile, 111% for the Kalibr, and an impressive 200% for the Kh-35. As Russia pivots towards jet-powered drones, Ukraine's air defenses will need to adapt to a new generation of faster and more numerous targets.
Written by urgent.news from Euromaidan Press's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
