The Ukrainian Armed Forces Set A Record For The Number Of Russian Air Defense Systems Destroyed

• 26.09.2026, 22:28

For the first time since the war began, so many Russian air defense systems have been destroyed in a single month.

In September, the Ukrainian Defense Forces set an all-time record for the war in terms of the number of enemy air defense systems destroyed in a single month. This was noted by the well-known Ukrainian military analyst Oleksandr Kovalenko.

According to available data, Russia lost 76 air defense systems in the first part of September. The previous record was set at the height of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in July 2023—73 units.

“The Defense Forces’ efforts to target Russian air defense systems are yielding results, both in terms of the effectiveness of subsequent strikes on the temporarily occupied territories and on Russia itself,” Kovalenko notes.

In total, since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has lost 1,673 air defense units, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As the analyst explains, this figure includes a wide variety of systems—not only self-propelled anti-aircraft guns but also components of certain surface-to-air missile systems and radar systems.

“The Russian army will never be able to restore or compensate for such a large amount of equipment, which means it will no longer be able—neither technically nor technologically—to return to its pre-war level of air superiority,” Kovalenko concluded.