Ukraine will enter the winter without its own ballistic missile interception system
Full deployment of the FREYJA system is expected in about a year
Ukraine is entering the new winter period without a fully-fledged domestic anti-ballistic defence. In the near term, interception of ballistic missiles from Russia will continue to depend on systems provided by Western partners.
This was stated during a meeting of Yalta European Strategy (YES) by a member of parliament and secretary of the parliamentary Committee of the Verkhovna Rada on National Security, Defence and Intelligence, Roman Kostenko, the publication Focus reports. According to him, creating its own interception capabilities will take time, so acquiring such capability in the coming months will not be possible.
“Let’s not deceive ourselves. This coming winter — and perhaps for some time after — we will depend on our partners for the interception of ballistic missiles,” said Roman Kostenko.
While there are no domestic anti-ballistic systems yet, the Ukrainian Defence Forces, in the deputy’s view, should focus on striking Russian ballistic missile launchers and launch positions before the launches occur.
At the same time, Ukraine is already working on creating its own anti-ballistic capabilities. On 18 June it agreed with Germany to work jointly on interceptor missiles.
On 13 July Ukraine and nine European states announced the creation of an Anti-Ballistic Coalition. The initiative, together with the Ukrainian side, was joined by:
- Denmark;
- France;
- Germany;
- Italy;
- The Netherlands;
- Norway;
- Spain;
- Sweden;
- The United Kingdom.
One of the coalition’s main projects became the European air-defence system FREYJA. The Ukrainian side is to complete the development and production of an anti-ballistic missile. The system is planned to be fully deployed roughly within the next year.
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