Images shared online show the system with only two of the standard six launch missiles pictured on one side, suggesting there may be a shortage of interceptors.
This feels significant for something buried at the end of the article.
this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2026
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Yeah. The Ukrainians are masterfully playing the economics of it. Shooting down drones that cost a tenth of an interceptor is ineffective. It's downright ruinous if Ukraine sends hundreds of drones a day. If the sky around Moscow is saturated with interceptions, there will be none left for the front lines, where they actually would make a military difference.
The Iranians have been playing a similar game with Trump. So much so that, to nobody's surprise, the leaders of the Gulf states invited Zelenskyy to offer drone interception tech instead of Hegseth.
Don't they have gun AA systems as well though? Wouldn't they be more effective against drones or are the radars unsuitable for the small targets.
Not sure if the Gepard required modifications or not to target drones, thought I had heard it could do a pretty good job at taking them out if it's at range. Probably not so much if there is uneven terrain for the drones to move through.
Very little range though compared to a missile.
Also spraying thousands of large caliber bullets a minute into the air isn't a great idea in a populated area around the capital. They might hit somebody important.
Of course, based on the video, they aren't exactly doing much better in that regard with the missles..
I'm no military expert but my read on this is Russia has realized there's no point in air defense in the front line anymore because they can't possibly keep up anyway...
Pantsir has also guns tho. More importantly than that it has a radar that can guide missile, which means that radar range exceeds gun range, which means that if there's info sharing system in place, single pantsir can send message to a dude in dshk technical saying "drone incoming towards your position from xx direction". But, this requires such system to exist, and it has to be fast enough, reliable enough and not to target airliners too often. Missiles are for higher end targets like jet drones or actual cruise missiles
I wonder what the success rate of the Pantsir system is against drones. Moscow has a ton of them installed yet Ukraine has been successful in getting past them repeatedly with a relatively few reported drones.
I have also never seen an video with their auto-cannons active. I wonder how much time it takes from them to swap from missile to the auto-cannon.
i think it would be more proper to look at success rate of entire system as a whole, and also keep in mind that there might be 90% success rate and still some slip through just because how huge these waves are. next day after that there was another drone wave and no reported footage
That's a fair point, but given that Moscow could presumably also be targeted by these higher end weapons, one would think that if the missiles were available, that the air defense systems would be fully loaded.
And now you know why the west is frantically working on laser based systems for shooting down drones. They are claiming literally "pennies per shot."
They don't like it now, do they? Fuck Moscow for real, life is not a game where you always win.
In the case of Russians, itβs not a game where you ever win
And then it got worse
At least they are consistent. They got that going for them, well that and pyrrhic victories. Really should just change Pyrrhic victories to russian victories as that is all they have known.
Lmao
Russia actually primed to lose this entire war.
Do we expect any territory boundaries to be redrawn eastwards soon?
Back to 2014 borders at least
Every day it's looking more and more like Crimea might be the first oblast to be liberated.
Ukraine is working on completely cutting off the southern front from supply routes. Eventually the troops along the southern front are going to suffer from lack of supplies. Without food, ammo etc, they will be have to retreat back or be easily overrun in their weakened state. Crimea is being cut off so that if the Russian troops retreat, they head east not south.
It's not going to happen immediately, but if Ukraine keeps up the current pressure by this fall might be very interesting.
Keeping Putin safe is the only thing that matters.
Send people to the front line to be killed. No big deal.
Destroy the economy. So what?
None of that matters as long as Putin feels safe.
I donβt think thereβs any way Ukraine would take Russian territory if thatβs what you mean.
That would mean constant war with no end. Ukraine would gain nothing by trying to control hostile territory. And, theyβd lose support from the West for any kind of invasion. Europe would be happy with just a strong Ukraine and Poland buffer.
Ukraine taking parts of Russia is pure revenge fantasy. It makes no logical sense
AFAIK Ukraine already occupies a small amount of Russian territory on the northern side, but they also lost a lot more on the south.
The west idolizes what the greatest generation did to the nazis, or another way to put it "turnabout is fair play".
I think russia can keep anything east of Vladivostok.
They can keep Big Diomede Island and eastward.
Who would want that?
The end of the beginning
well done Ukraine
Russia withdraws air defences from front line to ~~protect~~ attack Moscow
FTFY
Why would Russia attack Moscow?
They recently blew up their own fuel depot in downtown because they tried to shoot down a drone and missed.
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Lol this guy doesn't know
Because they sorta did.
That UFO picture of Moscow last week? Yeah, that was Russian air defence systems doing "their job" as how the Muppets also do "their job"
I'm sensing a big offensive operation coming from the Ukrainians. Amphibious landing in Crimea anyone?
Eh they likely don't need to. Just retake other land and let them go thirsty in Crimea for now.
They don't need to but it would be huge. If Ukraine could pull off Crimean capture Russia would have no choice but to capitulate. Putin would likely die the same week.
destroy the bridge first, but its pretty reinforced so its going to be difficult.
No, you want to give them a way out. Blow it up behind them after they leave
imagine the morale at the orc camps when oil refineries take priority over your life and your operations
That was never not true for any russian, and everyone is aware of that
I guess they want to blow up more oil storage tank floating roofs with AA missiles like that one from a few days ago.
Nice to see Russia is starting to take care of and protect its population. Keep it up.
Lol.
only moscowvites and st petersbergs, his sole political base of power. everywhere else in russia is expendable.