Why we can shoot down Iranian drones over Israel but not Ukraine
The different outcomes of the weekend’s attacks on Tel Aviv and Kharkiv reflect factors practical and political.
PATRICK TUCKER | APRIL 15, 2024
RUSSIA UKRAINE ISRAEL IRAN DRONES MISSILES
It was a tale of two cities this weekend. On Sunday morning, people in Tel Aviv went about their lives largely as usual despite the 300 drones and missiles that Iran had fired at Israel just hours before. U.S., UK, and Israeli forces destroyed nearly all of the projectiles. But more than a thousand miles due north, Ukrainians in Kharkiv mourned seven people killed over the weekend, the latest to die in a Russian bombardment campaign that has taken the lives of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure. Both attackers used Iranian-made Shahed 136 drones. The different outcomes reflect factors practical and political.
“’Shaheds in the skies above Ukraine sound identical to those over the Middle East. The impact of ballistic missiles, if they are not intercepted, is the same everywhere,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted Monday. “European skies could have received the same level of protection long ago if Ukraine had received similar full support from its partners in intercepting drones and missiles. Terror must be defeated completely and everywhere, not more in some places and less in others.”
Olena Halushka, co-founder of the International Centre for Ukrainian Victory, blamed the Biden administration’s strategy of under-arming Kyiv to avoid provoking Moscow. “Russia and Iran were given two years to test out Shahed drones in action against us, Ukrainians, and improve technologies accordingly. Two years. That was supposed to manage escalation.”
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2024/04/why-we-can-shoot-down-iranian-drones-over-israel-not-ukraine/395753/
