Russia changes tactics in aerial attacks: Ukrainians warned of new threat

Ukrainians should prepare for near-daily air raid alerts, as Russia has drastically revised its approach to missile and drone strikes.

This was stated by military analyst and veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Ukrainian Armed Forces reserve major Oleksii Hetman, during a broadcast on the “We - Ukraine” TV channel.

According to him, Russian forces have reduced the number of missiles launched simultaneously with drones but have significantly increased the frequency of attacks. Previously, airstrikes were more massive but occurred approximately once every 15 to 30 days. Now, attacks are happening almost daily.

“There used to be 60–80 missiles in a single strike. Now it’s 20–30 missiles, sometimes fewer. But this is happening nearly every night. So, we can assume that they’ve changed their tactics. They no longer prepare for air assaults every 15–30 days, but now strike every 2–3 days,” Hetman says.

The military expert noted that this shift in approach is due to Russia’s limited resources. According to Ukrainian military intelligence, the aggressor country can currently produce around 150–160 missiles per month. These are the quantities being used in regular attacks to avoid depleting existing stockpiles.

Hetman reminded that at the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia had about 4,150 missiles of all types. That number has now dropped by more than half — to around 2,000 units. However, despite these losses, Russia’s defense industry has significantly ramped up production, allowing the Kremlin to maintain constant missile pressure on Ukraine.

The expert also highlighted a change in targeting strategy. While Russia previously spread missile strikes across various regions, it now concentrates fire on a limited number of targets — one or two regions or even specific sites. The goal of this tactic is to overload local air defense systems and break through their protection.

“These raids will focus on several regions, possibly even just 1–2 locations. The aim is to send as many targets — both Shahed drones and missiles — to one area, thus overloading our air defense there and trying to achieve some results,” Hetman explains.