Ukraine seeks 'top priority' air defenses after leaks reveal weakness

Ukraine is seeking to quickly reinforce its air defense systems top Kyiv officials said in recent days, in the wake of Pentagon leaks that suggest that Ukrainian anti-air capabilities are vulnerable to Russian aerial attacks.

"Our top priority is to quickly build a multi-level air defense/anti-missile defense system," Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Thursday morning.

Rezinkov continued with Kyiv's longstanding lobbying for NATO-developed fighter jets, denying that such a thing was impossible given that other weapon platforms initially denied to Ukraine were later donated.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that everything was being done to increase capabilities to defend against Russian airstrikes.

"Air defense systems and other weapons to protect the sky are already here in Ukraine, they are really powerful," said Zelensky. "But they should be -- and, I am sure, will be -- even more powerful."

Reznikov noted on Thursday that the military had recently recieved Patriots, IRIS-T, NASAMS, and MiG-29s, but they were not the final steps in strengthening Ukrainian air defenses.

The Ukrainian Defense Minister praised allied states on Wednesday as Patriot surface-to-air missile systems arrived in Ukraine. Reznikov said that the US, Germany and Netherlands had kept their word in supplying the munitions.

"Today, our beautiful Ukrainian sky becomes more secure because Patriot air defense systems have arrived in Ukraine," said Reznikov. "Our air defenders have mastered them as fast as they could."

Military aid packages to Ukraine

On April 4 the US announced that it would supply Ukraine with additional Patriot and National Advanced Surface-to-Air System (NASAMS) missiles. It also pledged nine counter-Unmanned Aerial System (drone) 30mm gun trucks, 30mm and 23mm anti-aircraft ammunition, and three air surveillance radar.

Slovakia transferred 13 MiG-29 warplanes to Ukraine on Monday. Several Polish MiG-29s were announced delivered to Ukraine earlier in April. This broke the long-standing red line of transferring of fixed-wing aircraft to Ukraine, which had been drawn over concerns about escalations with Russia.

The rush this week to develop Ukraine's anti-air systems comes following the leak of American intelligence documents,  which detailed rapidly declining air defenses.

Russian-developed BUK and S-300 SAM platforms, which comprise 89% of medium and high range defenses according to the Pentagon leaks, were set to be completely depleted by March 31 and May 2 respectively. Ukraine's medium air defenses would be inert by May 23, shifting reliance to lower layer air systems. Ukraine lacks enough NATO-origin interceptors, and would have to rely on short range shoulder launched weapons. These weapons were key in denying Russia from achieving air superiority early in the war.

Russia has been launching frequent ballistic missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, often targeting electrical grids and other utilities. 

"We will never forget how, thanks to the compassion and assistance of our friends, we were able to keep the lights and heat on in our homes last winter," Reznikov said on Thursday.

UK and other western intelligence assessments have previously proposed that the bombardments have been designed  to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses and force the expenditure of anti-air munitions. If Ukraine's air defenses were to be depleted, the Pentagon leaks assessed that Russia would be able to achieve air superiority. The Kremlin's aerial ground attack and resupply operations would be granted greater freedom. Air strikes would be of improved accuracy, range, quantity and duration.

The Pentagon papers proposed in the short term to deliver more Soviet-era munitions for existent Ukrainian systems, offensive attacks on air systems, faking active systems by targeting aircraft, and expediting a little known program called "FrankenSAM". In the long term, it was proposed to deliver a sufficient amount of NATO anti-air systems.

The US announced a further security package for Ukraine on Wednesday, which largely subsisted of artillery and anti-tank munitions. Reznikov thanked the US for the round of security assistance.

Ukraine presented other indications that it was concerned about its munition and weapons supplies on Monday. Zelensky said in an address that every time there were delays in war materials, it came at the expense of Ukrainian soldiers' lives.

"Every time we hear that the promised supply of weapons is delayed, every time there are doubts about the type of weapons for Ukraine, about the range or other quality characteristics – every time it means that Ukrainian soldiers are giving their lives so that we have this time," said Zelensky.

In a meeting the same day between Zelensky and his senior staff, they considered greater focus in locally produced weapons, which they said would cover all types of missiles and ammunition.