‘Enough for Years’: Ihnat Says Patriot Missiles Used in Middle East Could Have Protected Ukraine

Ukraine could have had enough Patriot air defense missiles to sustain its systems for several years if a significant portion of the interceptors had not been expended in the Middle East, Yuriy Ihnat, head of the Communications Department of the Ukrainian Air Force Command, said.

Speaking on the RBC-Ukraine podcast Tse Baza (“This Is the Basics”), Ihnat said Ukrainian forces had adapted their tactics for using the US-made Patriot systems throughout Russia’s full-scale war, learning to employ them in different combat scenarios while conserving expensive interceptor missiles.

Ukraine’s approach differs significantly from that of other countries, Ihnat said. Ukrainian crews can deploy Patriot systems for ambushes rather than keeping them at fixed positions, such as airfields or military bases, and then relocate after engaging targets.

“For instance, rather than using the Patriot as a stationary asset – the way the Americans typically deploy it at airfields or bases – it can be used, in a sense, as a ‘roving’ system: set up an ambush, shoot down five aircraft, and then withdraw safely,” he said.

Ihnat also pointed to an incident in Russia’s Bryansk region as an example of the capabilities Ukrainian forces have demonstrated with the system.

Another key difference, he said, is ammunition use. Ukrainian crews have learned to use a single interceptor against a single target, while air defense forces in the Middle East have reportedly fired as many as eight missiles at one target.

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The Patriot system has three operating modes: automatic, semi-automatic and manual. Ihnat said that in automatic mode, the system can launch multiple interceptors at once.

Without sufficient combat experience, crews could end up firing an entire salvo from one launcher at a single target, including a relatively inexpensive Shahed drone.

“Because of this lack of experience, they might have fired an entire salvo of interceptors from a launcher at a single Shahed drone or a single ballistic missile,” Ihnat said.

He estimated that the number of interceptors expended in the Middle East could have kept Ukraine’s Patriot systems operational in combat for several more years.

“That is why we now find ourselves in the current crisis; the ammunition expended in the Middle East would have been enough to keep our Patriot systems operational in combat for several more years,” Ihnat said.

Notably, in March, a senior Ukrainian Air Force officer speaking to The Times criticized Gulf forces for using excessive numbers of expensive interceptor missiles against relatively cheap Iranian Shahed drones, saying Ukrainian crews typically use one or two missiles even against more complex targets.

Ukrainian officers said their battlefield experience has not been fully incorporated despite sharing operational data with allies.

They also described the March 1 incident in which Kuwaiti air defenses shot down three US F-15E fighter jets as “clear negligence,” arguing that better coordination could have prevented the friendly-fire incident.

During the first four days of the Iran war, the US and its allies reportedly fired more than 800 Patriot missiles – more than Ukraine received over three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Ukraine has received just 24 Patriot air defense missiles from the US over the past 90 days, despite needing around 350 interceptors per month to defend against Russian ballistic missile attacks, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with ABC News.

Zelensky contrasted the limited deliveries to Ukraine with the roughly 2,000 partner-supplied interceptors fired during the first 84 hours of fighting in the Middle East.

Ukrainian officials have warned that the allocation of US-made Patriot PAC-2 and PAC-3 missiles to the region is affecting supplies available to defend Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure.

On Oct. 16, Zelensky asked European leaders to provide 300 Patriot interceptors for the winter, warning that deliveries of just two to four missiles every few months were insufficient to counter Russian attacks.

He proposed that European countries with existing Patriot stocks help bridge the gap until new procurement arrangements and defense projects become operational.

However, efforts to secure missiles from European stockpiles have faced resistance. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Athens would not transfer PAC-2 missiles if doing so compromised Greece’s own defense capabilities in the Eastern Mediterranean.