Over 57,000 targets destroyed: effectiveness of Ukraine’s air defence remained at 88% throughout May, - AFU. PHOTOS

Units of the Ukrainian Defence Forces are demonstrating a high and consistent success rate in repelling Russian air attacks. Despite the unprecedented intensity of air raids during the spring of 2026, the rate of enemy targets shot down remains between 88% and 90%.

This was reported at a briefing at Ukrinform by Colonel Oleksandr Zaruba, chief research fellow at the State Research Institute for Testing and Certification of Weapons and Military Equipment, and Major Andrii Kovalov, an officer in the Media Relations Department of the Public Relations Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, reports Censor.NET.

Air defence effectiveness and targets destroyed

In particular, as of the end of May 2026, the overall effectiveness of intercepting Russian missiles and drones stood at over 88%. Over the course of the month, Ukrainian air defences have already eliminated more than 57,000 enemy air attack assets.

Such results are achieved thanks to a comprehensive approach:

The deployment of a deeply echeloned defence system;
The active implementation and use of acoustic sensor networks;
The massive and effective use of electronic warfare (EW) capabilities;
Pre-emptive strikes by the Defence Forces against military infrastructure on Russian territory.

Some air attack assets do still reach their targets

At the same time, the military emphasises that maintaining such high figures is becoming increasingly difficult due to the constant technological evolution of the enemy’s air attack assets. Russia is waging a ‘war of attrition’, using cheap drones to overwhelm our air defence and attacking civilian infrastructure.

Furthermore, there have been instances where attack drones have been used by the enemy as aerial launch platforms for dropping anti-personnel or anti-tank mines, cluster munitions, and even launching FPV drones.

Thanks to these updates, some of the assets are still achieving their goals. Furthermore, debris from downed missiles and UAVs, as well as explosive traps that they drop as they fall, pose a serious danger to people.