warships in the black sea, being relatively slow and low flying, can be intercepted by fighter planes and anti aircraft gun defences. air launched missiles can also be of the cruise type, like those launched yesterday, or the very much faster kinzhal several of which were fired at kyiv two weeks ago. these so called hypersonic weapons have to be engaged by the most advanced defences the ukrainians have the us patriot system, a battery of which is stationed near kyiv. there are suggestions that in recent days iranian made drones have been fired at kyiv simply to goad ukraine into using up its precious stock of patriots. that s not particularly likely, since these drones fly so low and slow that an advanced missile like that wouldn t be wasted on them but it s all part of russia s attempts to fire different weapons
cruise missiles and 35 drones launched yesterday. there s speculation that they re trying to overhwelm ukraine s air defences and there may be a political motive too, to remind ukrainians of russian power as they hope to re conquer occupied lands in the south and east. the russian campaign definitely has military utility, because the volume of strikes that the russians are conducting risks exhausting ukrainian air defence missile systems, and that would open up opportunities for the russian air force to start operating in ukrainian skies. the ukrainian response so far i think is merely to point tout to russians we can do this to you too, so it is the russians launch a variety of weapons, from a variety of directions, each with their own characteristics. the ukrainians try to match each of them with the right defensive weapons. so ccruise missiles fired by russian
unfortunately it is exclusive, it is, it is exemplary, but it is not the nato position, and it s small number of those long range missiles, so as long as this continues, that ukraine is denied the weapons to attack, becausejust remember, attack, because just remember, defence attack, becausejust remember, defence never leads to success in war, so there should be not only defensive weapons, but also kind of offensive weapons, not to bomb moscow, i doubt they want to bomb moscow, i doubt they want to bomb moscow, even in response to bombing of kyiv, but in order to hit where it comes from, you know, those drones, from russia, they are not
systems themselves and they have many, many skilled air defenders but also engineers who understand radar, so their ability to plug and play with different radar systems is something their own defence industry was established at before and ukraine has also, apparently been responding in kind to attacks on its capital. yesterday, the head of ukrainian military intelligence warned those who tired to intimidate us, dreaming it would bring some effect wll regret it very soon . in moscow this morning, a series of explosions, and apparent footage of drones being used to attack targets in russia s capital. as with the attack on the kremlin early this month, which american intelligence believes was carried out by ukraine, it s the symbolic value of striking the russian capital that counts for more than the actual explosive effect. but the real question now concerns the skies over ukraine, and whether the russians can maintain the current bombardment for longer than ukraine can defend against
been killed amid a wave of new russian drone attacks. they ve proven particularly deadly there. ukrainian forces are claiming to have shot down several of those drones, but many do get through and cause a lot of destruction on the ground. cnn s senior national security correspondent, alex marquardt is in ukraine. alex, i wonder if you can describe to folks at home what you re seeing there. reporter: yeah, at least 14 drones overnight targeting these two different cities in the southwestern part of the country and there were those two first responders who were killed, responding to an earlier drone strike. and at least three people. this speaks to how these drones were sent in in waves. at least 9 out of the 11 that were sent in were shot down. those air raid sirens over kyiv blaring for some 5 1/2 hours, which really speaks to that concern that we saw last week about president biden s visit to