Russia Loses Two Prized Pantsir Systems As Ukraine Mocks 'Leaky' Defenses

Ukraine has destroyed two of Russia's Pantsir-S1 air-defense systems, officials said on Sunday, in the latest push by Kyiv to take out key Russian assets and ground-based weaponry.

Fighters with Ukraine's intelligence agency, the GUR, took out two Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft systems in Russia's Belgorod border region on Saturday, the agency said in a statement on Sunday.

Russian air defenses close to the country "turned out to be leaky," added Ivan Fedorov, the exiled Ukrainian mayor of the southern Moscow-controlled city of Melitopol.

Ukraine has been hunting Russia's network of air defenses such as the short-range Pantsir to counter Moscows continuing efforts to target the country's infrastructure. It has also channeled its resources into eliminating Russia's other short-range ground-based air defenses like the Tor systems, as well as longer-range defenses, such as the S-300s and S-400s which which have been used extensively against Kyiv and other locations.

Ukraine rarely claims responsibility for strikes on Russian soil. Newsweek has approached the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

The Pantsir-S1—thought to be worth in the region of $15 million—is designed for use against aircraft, cruise missiles, precision-guided munitions and for supporting other air-defense units against larger strikes.

"The efforts of both Russia and Ukraine to overcome their adversary's ground-based air-defense systems continue to be one of the most important contests of the war," the British Defense Ministry said on December 3, 2023.

Ukraine has said several times in recent weeks that it has destroyed Russian ground-based air-defense systems. Earlier this month, Kyiv said its forces had taken out two Buk systems within days of one another.

Kyiv had successfully targeted two Buks in the south and east of the country within a week in late November, Ukrainian officials said in early December.

On November 26, the U.K. government said Russia had likely pulled a number of air-defense systems from its Baltic Sea base at Kaliningrad to the front lines in Ukraine to "backfill recent losses."

Air-defense systems are also crucial for Ukraine. From December 29 into the new year, Russia launched waves of missile strikes across the country, with many targeting Kyiv itself.

Russia is attempting to deplete Ukraine's air defenses, meaning Kyiv's priority is keeping them functional and well-supplied with ammunition, a senior Ukrainian commander said last week.

"In the medium- and long-term, we need help from Western countries to replenish the missile stock," Serhiy Nayev, commander of the joint forces of the armed forces of Ukraine overseeing mobile air defenses in northern Ukraine and Kyiv, told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday.

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