Missile and drone strikes against Ukraine have shown no consistent schedule, making prediction difficult. Yuriy Ignat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Force, explained in an interview on the YouTube channel Direct that Russian attacks are not tied to symbolic dates and cannot be reliably forecasted.
He described the situation bluntly: this is not a schoolyard sparring match. The Ukrainian air defense community sees Russian missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles as deliberate tools aimed at degrading military facilities and critical infrastructure rather than engaging in any form of symbolic contest.
Ignat emphasized that Russia does not engage in a dialogue or respond to conventional pressures. The missiles and drones are deployed to disrupt military operations and infrastructure, with the goal of crippling Ukraine’s defensive and civilian resilience.
On December 29, Ignat noted that during the period described as a special military operation, Ukrainian forces did not manage to neutralize any of the 300 Russian X-22 missiles, illustrating the scale and intensity of the challenge faced on the battlefield.
That same day, Ukraine confronted a severe strike. The country’s Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny reported an attack involving 122 missiles and 36 unmanned aircraft. The defense ministry subsequently stated that the targets included military-industrial facilities, airfields, ammunition depots, and other military sites, underscoring the broad scope of the assault.
Earlier statements from Ukrainian defense personnel highlighted the ongoing difficulties in understanding the broader strategic causes of the conflict, reflecting the complexity and evolving nature of the security situation in the region.