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Artem Morozs four-mile race in Central Park in Manhattan this month didnt go as planned.

The former Ukrainian soldier had hoped to run on new prosthetics made for him in the United States, but they werent ready in time for the race. So he walked across the start using prosthetics he had brought from home and was pushed in a wheelchair the rest of the way.

As Morozs guide propelled him up the hill, he spread his arms out wide, like a child imitating an airplanes flight. The corners of a Ukrainian flag tied to the back of the chair rippled in the breeze.

He wasnt running yet, but knew that he would be soon.

Moroz, 44, had been running since he was a child. He and his family live in Irpin, just west of Kyiv, and it was impossible not to run, he said.

Before Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Moroz would start his day by running: at sunrise through a nearby forest before going to workat large construction sites, where he was a project manager.

Then war arrived.

Moroz joined the military in late March 2022, after watching Russian soldiers attack Irpin, and became a platoon commander. On Sept. 14, he and his unit were hit by a rocket in the Kherson region. If not for Polish doctors and paramedics, he would have died, he said, but both his legs were amputated below the knee. At first, he couldnt imagine being able to stand again, he said.

While in a hospital in Mykolaiv, he watched a documentary on YouTube about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings and the way the city and running community had come back stronger in 2014.

The movie gave him a goal: Run the Boston Marathon, which was then six months away.

Social media facilitated a key connection as he began his pursuit. Nadiia Osmankina, a Ukrainian who came to the United States a year ago for the Boston Marathon and stayed because of the war, saw his story and reached out to him. Running Boston changed her life, she said, and she wanted Moroz to get that same opportunity.

She had connections with both the Ukrainian Running Club in New York City and the president of a foundation, Revived Soldiers Ukraine, that helps wounded Ukrainian service members. The foundations president, Iryna Vashchuk, had been a professional runner and was born in Irpin.

The foundation has a center in Orlando, Fla., where soldiers are fitted for prosthetics. They were able to provide Moroz with both regular walking prosthetics, for daily life, and a specialized type used for running, which are carbon fiber curves that have rubber treads around the edges of the feet.

Moroz arrived late last month and figured that while he was in the United States, he could run some races. The Ukrainian Running Club has a big presence at many races staged by the New York Road Runners, the organizer of the New York City Marathon, and they connected the Road Runners and Moroz so he could pick a race.

But becoming accustomed to new prosthetics, especially running blades, isnt like slipping on a new pair of sneakers.

Its a whole different muscle memory, especially for above-the-knee amputees, said Mary Johnson, who had one leg amputated above the knee after a traumatic injury.

You have to trust that your foot will hit the ground underneath you where you expect, or youll land on the ground, she said.

The Central Park race in early April came just a week after Moroz had arrived in the United States. By then, reality had set in: He wouldnt be competing on his new running blades. Still, he was back out there on a racecourse.

Organizers allowed Moroz and Osmankina to start 10 minutes early so he wouldnt be jostled in the crowded corrals. Except for walking across the starting line, this first race would be in a wheelchair. Some runners from the Ukrainian club cheered at a spot on the course.

Just after he finished, Moroz was already looking ahead to his next race: Boston, in two weeks. Not the marathon, but the five-kilometer race the Boston Athletic Association puts on two days earlier. This year, it fell on the 10th anniversary of the 2013 bombings. Even with his slow early progress, Moroz thought he might be able to run on his new blades in Boston.

Two days before the race, Moroz was practicingon his newwalking prosthetics in Orlando in a parking lot. The fit still wasnt quite right, he said. Small changes, even drinking a glass of water, altered how they would fit. Thats not unusual for amputees. The doctors would tweak one thing and he would try it, and then they would adjust again.

Sean Karpf, who was wounded while serving in the U.S. Army and lost part of one leg below the knee, said that during the first two to three years after his injury, he had needed adjustments every four to six months because of the changes in his residual limb not unusual for amputees.

In the United States, medical insurance doesnt cover adaptive sports equipment, which is not deemed medically necessary and can be expensive. A running blade can cost $12,000 to $15,000. Above-the-knee amputees also need a knee joint, which costs more.

While the Department of Veterans Affairs generally will cover the cost of that type of equipment for American troops injured during their service, the wait can be as long as 18 months. Americans who arent in the military often rely on fund-raising efforts or grants through nonprofit groups. Johnson got her running prosthetic through the Challenged Athletes Foundation, which provides grants for adaptive equipment and camps and clinics for people to learn adaptive sports.

Moroz finally got his running blades a few days before his Boston race, but he wasnt ready to run on them, so he instead used his walking prosthetics for the 5K event. After the race, he put on the running blades for photos at the finish line with Osmankina. He couldnt stand, much less walk, without leaning on someone for balance. When Osmankina stepped away, Moroz nearly fell.

Still, seven months and a day after Moroz had been carried from the battlefield by Polish medics, his life in danger, he ran for the first time, in Boston. It wasnt the marathon, as he had imagined, but that didnt matter. He was running.

Soon, Ukraine will have more capacity to help people injured in the war instead of relying on European and American medical centers. Unbroken, an organization focused on helping Ukrainians heal from traumatic injuries sustained in the war, is retrofitting an old military hospital in Lviv from the Soviet Unionera, said Dr. David Crandell, who is the medical director of the amputee center at a rehabilitation hospital in Boston and part of the World Health Organizations technical working group on rehabilitation for Ukraine. Next month, Unbroken expects to open the former hospital as a center focused on amputee and post-traumatic stress care.

Demand is high. The First Union Hospital in Lviv is receiving 25 to 100 new trauma patients each day, Crandell said. He estimates that the country will have to accommodate 5,000 to 6,000 new amputees because of the war.

You can imagine what Boston saw at the Boston Marathon, every single day for a year, Crandell said.

This race, which Moroz had been inspired to run only months earlier from his hospital bed, began with Osmankina riding in the wheelchair, holding a flag, as Moroz pushed her. A little farther on, a slippery patch on the road made him slide, and before the second turn on the course, they had switched positions. Osmankina pushed Moroz, his feet lifted so the heels of his everyday prostheses wouldnt catch on the ground. He lifted his arms up, encouraging the spectators who lined the course to cheer louder.

They arrived to fans. Andriy Boyko, a Ukrainian who lives in Melrose, Mass., a suburb north of Boston, showed up with his family to cheer from the sidelines. Moroz later said he had heard many people cheering for him and for Ukraine during the race, which he had not expected.

As they approached the end of the race, Moroz and Osmankina switched places again. Moroz ran, pushing his guide over the finish line.

The marathon would be there when he was ready. As he spoke, a good 20 minutes after he had crossed the finish line, his hand still trembled from the adrenaline.

It might be I will not sleep tonight, he said.

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He Lost His Legs in the War in Ukraine, but Not His Will to Run - The New York Times

UNITED NATIONS (AP) Russia couldnt escape its war against Ukraine during its highly contentious presidency of the U.N. Security Council, and the war will still loom over Switzerland as it takes over the monthlong presidency Monday for the first time since becoming a full member of the United Nations in 2002.

Switzerlands U.N. Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl said at the traditional opening press conference that her countrys approach has been to work for unity of the councils 15 members and to be a bridge builder. She conceded, nonetheless, that she expects some heated or polarized discussions.

Fireworks are almost certain during Switzerlands signature events, starting Wednesday with a session on how to ensure trust to sustain peace in the future and another on May 23 on protecting civilians in armed conflict.

The council is also highly likely to hold a meeting on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, she said, which is certain to pit Moscow against Kyivs allies.

We will try to conduct tho (open) meetings in a calm way, Baeriswyl said. When it comes to closed consultations, I may be asking in a little more active way council members to really stay respectful with each other.

Russia started its presidency by giving the spotlight to its commissioner of childrens rights, who is accused with President Vladimir Putin of war crimes for deporting Ukrainian children to Russia. Then, it went after the West by claiming it is violating international laws by arming Ukraine.

At its premiere event last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov defended his countrys military action and accused the U.S. and its allies of undercutting global diplomacy the foundation of the United Nations ,which was created to prevent a third world war.

Envoys from the U.S. and several allies responded to the video briefing by Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian childrens rights commissioner, by walking out of the council chamber. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzias accusations about arming Ukraine drew a blistering response that Ukraine has every right to defend itself against Putins invading army.

And U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Western envoys berated Lavrov for violating the U.N. Charter by attacking Ukraine and occupying part of its territory.

Switzerland Ambassador Baeriswyl was among those who accused Russia of violating the U.N. Charter, saying Ukraines state sovereignty, territorial integrity and the prohibition of the use of force continue to be flouted by the military aggression of a permanent member of the Security Council against its neighbor.

The presidency of the Security Council, the U.N.s most powerful body charged with maintaining international peace and security, rotates monthly in alphabetical order of its 15 members.

John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser to former President Donald Trump, said Russias presidency shows the dysfunctional nature of the Security Council, which has been paralyzed over Ukraine since Putins February 2022 invasion of its smaller neighbor. He said the same holds true during Chinas council presidency.

Obviously, theyre not going to permit any serious discussion of some of the real security crises around the world, and even if they did permit the discussion, they would block the council from doing anything through the veto, he said in a phone interview with AP.

Bolton said its unfortunate but ironic to say the least that the promise at the end of the Cold War in 1990-1991 that the Security Council could really be effective and address global crises after decades of paralysis because of the veto power of the United States and the Soviet Union has ended, alluding to the ongoing paralysis over Ukraine and other hotspots because of Russias veto.

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Ukraine war looms over Switzerland UN presidency - The Associated Press

In her book Gulag: A History, Anne Applebaum writes, The more we are able to understand how different societies have transformed their neighbors and fellow citizens from people into objects, the more we know of the specific circumstances which led to each episode of mass torture and mass murder, the better we will understand the darker side of our own human nature.

Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.

Anne, who received the Pulitzer Prize for Gulag, has made one of her professional preoccupations (to borrow from Robert Burns) mans inhumanity to manspecifically, though not exclusively, the inhumanity manifest in Soviet and post-Soviet history. Her book Red Famine is the definitive study of Stalins calculated starvation of Ukraine. Annes work on that catastrophe prepared her to write about Ukraines latest calamity, a calamity whose author is Stalins worthy successor. Readers of The Atlantic have benefited from Annes erudition, vision, and trenchant writing.

On our most recent visit to Ukraine, the darker side of human nature was plainly visible. One day, in Kherson, the still mostly abandoned southern city only recently liberated by the Ukrainian army, a Russian missile struck a supermarket parking lot. Anne and I were nearby, interviewing Ukrainian soldiers. The missile was meant to murder and terrorize; mission accomplished. Three people died in this attack, and three more were injured, including an elderly woman. A few hours after the strike, all that was left was a modest crater, bits of shrapnel, and smudges of blood on the asphalt. This sort of scene is repeated up and down the Dnipro River: the Russians on one bank, firing artillery and short-range missiles at civilians; the Ukrainians firing back with whatever they have, which is often not enough.

Anne and I first met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last year, a short time after Russias full-scale invasion began, and in that meeting one of the main subjects was, indeed, ordnancehow many rockets and artillery shells Ukraine needed simply to survive the Russian onslaught. When we saw Zelensky again, this past March, the conversation was more expansive, about democracy, education, technology. In this interview (which we conducted with Laurene Powell Jobs, the chair of The Atlantics board of directors), Zelensky spoke with urgency about the need for the West to remain unfaltering in the face of Russian aggression. This is the subject of the story Anne and I wrote for this issue.

From the June 2023 issue: The case for the total liberation of Ukraine

The war in Ukraine is about much more than Ukraine; it is about the very subjects that animate this magazine: democracy, freedom, justice, humanism. So Anne, and others, will continue to cover this war and its consequences vigorously and ambitiously. As you will see, the pictures accompanying our story were taken by Paolo Pellegrin, one of the greatest living photographers, and the cover was designed and drawn by Bono, who, in addition to being Bono, is a gifted illustrator. Not long ago, he told me that he sometimes redesigned and reimagined Atlantic covers on his iPad. I was, as you might imagine, curious about this hobby, and I asked to see his sketches. They were very good. I suggested that he make an actual Atlantic cover. Zelensky, a man we both admire, was a natural subject for his first go. Like Anne, Bono is preoccupied with issues of freedom and dignity, and, working with Oliver Munday, our associate creative director, he made a stunning cover that captures the resolve of Ukraines wartime president.

In other news, The Atlantic has won the most prestigious honor awarded by the American Society of Magazine Editors, the National Magazine Award for General Excellence. Our magazine won this prize last year as well. We have a staff, and a mission, without parallel in American journalism, and it is gratifying to receive this recognition. This is a tribute to our entire team, and in particular to people like Anne Applebaum, and to the five staff writers who were finalists this year for their outstanding feature stories: Caitlin Dickerson, George Packer, Jennifer Senior, Clint Smith, and Graeme Wood. We are trying to build at The Atlantic the worlds greatest writers collective, in order to serve our readers as best we can. I thank all of you for your support and loyalty.

This editors note appears in the June 2023 print edition with the headline War and Consequences.

When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

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War and Consequences in Ukraine - The Atlantic

The United States is wiring Ukraine with sensors that can detect bursts of radiation from a nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb and can confirm the identity of the attacker.

In part, the goal is to make sure that if Russia detonates a radioactive weapon on Ukrainian soil, its atomic signature and Moscows culpability could be verified.

Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine 14 months ago, experts have worried about whether President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia would use nuclear arms in combat for the first time since the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The preparations, mentioned last month in a House hearing and detailed Wednesday by the National Nuclear Security Administration, a federal agency that is part of the Energy Department, seem to constitute the hardest evidence to date that Washington is taking concrete steps to prepare for the worst possible outcomes of the invasion of Ukraine, Europes second largest nation.

The Nuclear Emergency Support Team, or NEST, a shadowy unit of atomic experts run by the security agency, is working with Ukraine to deploy the radiation sensors, train personnel, monitor data and warn of deadly radiation.

In a statement sent to The New York Times in response to a reporters question, the agency said the network of atomic sensors was being deployed throughout the region and would have the ability to characterize the size, location and effects of any nuclear explosion. Additionally, it said the deployed sensors would deny Russia any opportunity to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine without attribution.

That statement goes to the fog of nuclear war and how the United States could use the new system to pierce it.

In one scenario, Washington could use information gathered by the network to rule out the possibility of misidentifying the attacker who set off a nuclear blast. That might seem like an unnecessary step given the distinctiveness of a mushroom cloud. But if a weapon was delivered by a truck, tank or boat instead of a conspicuous missile with a trackable flight path, figuring out its origins might prove near impossible.

Public knowledge of such defensive planning, nuclear experts say, can deter Moscow by letting it know that Washington can expose what is called a false-flag operation.

For instance, Moscow could falsely claim that Kyiv set off a nuclear blast on the battlefield to try to draw the West into deeper war assistance. But in theory, with the sensor network in place, Washington would be able to point to its own nuclear attribution analyses to reveal that Moscow was in fact the attacker.

Last fall, Russia, without offering any evidence, claimed repeatedly that Ukraine was planning to explode a bomb designed to spread radioactive material, a so-called dirty bomb. Washington warned that the Kremlin was trying to create a false-flag pretext to escalate the war.

The science of nuclear attribution underwent rapid development in the United States after the September2001 terrorist attacks raised the issue of domestic nuclear terrorism. While the science has secretive aspects, its outlines are publicly known.

Now, this newly acquired capability is being used on foreign soil in the context of a potential nuclear war or a Russian attack on Ukraines 15 nuclear reactors at four power generation sites.

If a nuclear emergency were to occur in Ukraine, whether a radiation release from a nuclear reactor or a nuclear weapon detonation, the security agency said in its statement, scientific analyses would be rapidly provided to U.S. government authorities and decision-making centers in Ukraine and the region to make actionable, technically informed decisions to protect public health and safety.

Nuclear experts say such defensive precautions could face their greatest test in coming weeks as the Ukrainian army launches its spring offensive. China has leaned on Russia to discontinue its nuclear saber rattling and Mr. Putin has not recently invoked a nuclear threat. But Western experts worry that Russias battlefield failures are making Mr. Putin, if anything, more dependent on his nuclear arsenal, and theyworry that fresh setbacks could increase his willingness to pull the nuclear trigger.

The security agency reports to Jennifer M. Granholm, the energy secretary. Last month she told Congress of the general precautions for radiation detection in Ukraine and said the objective of the U.S. assistance was to make sure that the Ukrainians are safe and not exposed. She gave few details, however, saying that would require a closed session.

The Energy Department and the security agency say they are spending roughly $160 million on the atomic precautions in Ukraine this year, with a similar amount requested for 2024.

Jeffrey T. Richelson, author of Defusing Armageddon, a 2009 book on theNuclear Emergency Support Team, reported that it often teamed up with the Joint Special Operations Command, an elite military unit so secretive that the Pentagon for years refused to acknowledge its existence.

Experts say Ukraine needs all the help it can get because its nuclear infrastructure is so extensive and has faced heavy attacks by Russia over the past 14 months.

Shortly after the start of theinvasion, Russian forces seized control of the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant, which in 1986 suffered a meltdown that sent radioactive clouds over parts of Europe and locally left a wasteland of contaminated soil. The Russian troops dug up a nearby section of earth, increasing radiation levels in the area but not enough to endanger workers.

The Russian forces also fired on and captured Europes largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia, a complex of six reactors. A fire broke out during the assault, but safety officers detected no radiation.

A main Ukrainian site for nuclear research in Kharkiv the sprawling Institute of Physics and Technology suffered 100 strikes from Russian shells and missiles in the conflicts early days. The salvos damaged a nuclear facility used for the production of medical isotopes, but experts found no radiation leaks. The overall complex lost power for more than a month.

In Kyiv, Russian projectiles hit the Institute for Nuclear Research, starting a fire in a warehouse. The institutes small reactor was undamaged, and no radiation leaks were found.

Ukraines other atomic infrastructure includes additional power plants; storage sites for spent nuclear fuel; and facilities across the nation, including hospitals, that use radioactive materials for research and medical therapies.

The Energy Department, in addition to NESTs assistance, says itis providing support to partner agencies in Ukraine on measuring aerial radiation, modeling atmospheric plumes of radiation, countering nuclear smuggling and treating radiation injuries.

Edwin Lyman, a nuclear power expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists who has closely monitored the Ukrainian war, said a federal official told him of a possible reactor threat scenario. It posits that Russia, if it suffered a humiliating defeat and withdrew from Ukraine, might retaliate by firing on a reactor or its spent fuel storage areas in order to release high radioactivity into the environment.

Thats one of the biggest dangers, Dr. Lyman said. If they wanted to render as much of the countryside as they could uninhabitable, those reactors might become targets.

He was heartened, Dr. Lyman added, to learn that NEST and the Energy Department were being proactive and taking these threats seriously.

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U.S. Wires Ukraine With Radiation Sensors to Detect Nuclear Blasts - The New York Times

The wait is over after almost a year of refusals and hesitation, Western-provided MIM-104 Patriot air defense systems have finally arrived and become operational in Ukraine.

On April 21 and 26, Ukraines Air Force confirmed the full employment of two Patriot batteries.

As Ukraines own Soviet-era air defense capabilities are reportedly dwindling, Patriots are expected to take up the fight against not only Russian aircraft and cruise missiles but also ballistic systems Ukraine had nothing to counter with.

It also means that Patriots will be put to a serious battlefield test for the first time in at least 20 years, after two decades of upgrades and modifications.

In high-intensity combat against the hardest targets, the Patriot can confirm or disprove its widely-regarded reputation as one of the worlds best air defense systems.

The Ukrainian Air Force discloses little to no information regarding the Patriots it acquired.

On April 21, following reports of the Patriots arrival in Ukraine, the Air Force branch commander Lieutenant General Mykola Oleschuk published a picture of him standing next to the systems launcher.

The commander also confirmed the deployment of the MIM-104 in Ukraine with fully trained Ukrainian personnel. Ukrainian crews completed the training in the United States and Germany between January and late March, even though a training course typically takes up to 10 months.

Later, the Air Force also published a video showing a Ukrainian-operated system. Judging from the launcher's specific woodland camouflage and the fact that it was mounted on a MAN truck, it was a German-donated system.

The Air Force said the Patriots, in its use, can intercept both aerodynamic and ballistic targets. Among its most desired targets, the Ukrainian personnel specifically mentions Russias Sukhoi Su-35 fighter, known for its enhanced maneuverability, as well as Kh-22, a Soviet-made cruise missile type that Russia has repeatedly used to deliver devastating strikes on Ukrainian cities.

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The Russian Kh-22 is responsible for one of the deadliest attacks on civilians: the Jan. 14 strike upon an apartment building in Dnipro that killed 45 people. The Air Force repeatedly stated it could not intercept this obsolete though destructive missile until the West provided Ukraine with Patriot systems.

Judging from the video, the German-donated Patriot battery was deployed with Ukraines 138th Air Defense Brigade based in Dnipro and responsible for covering the countrys eastern regions from Sumy to Zaporizhia.

Arms manufacturers now have a unique opportunity to examine their performance claims here, on the battlefields of Ukraine, Oleschuk said.

So we will try this.

From the beginning, Ukraine positioned Patriots as the lacking component to counter Russias extensive use of ballistic systems, such as Iskander Ms.

The Ukrainian calls for Patriot systems were also triggered by the threat of Russian use of Iranian-provided ballistic missile systems Fateh-110 and Zolfagar.

Despite many fears, Russia has not yet used or acquired Iranian missiles. The Iranian support of Russia was considered a major threat to Ukraines longer-range air defense, which still relies heavily on old S-300 family systems and Buk M1s.

And meanwhile, Ukraine finds itself in a very shaky situation regarding its own stockpile of S-300 and Buk-M1s, which, according to the leaked Pentagon papers, were expected to run empty by May.

Yet, over the last weeks, the Ukrainian Air Force continued countering new attacks, intercepting most of the incoming Russian missiles. Overnight into May 1, the Ukrainian military reported having destroyed 15 out of 18 cruise missiles Kh-101 and Kh-555 fired from Russian strategic bombers.

Nonetheless, Russian missiles that penetrated the Ukrainian defense inflicted devastating damage to the city of Pavlograd, where they reportedly hit a Ukrainian ammunition depot. According to local authorities, dozens of buildings were damaged, and at least 34 civilians were injured as of early May 1.

Besides, in theory, Patriot systems can be a solution against the Russian use of S-300/400 missiles switched to surface-to-surface mode as ballistic munitions, which time and again inflict damage upon Ukrainian cities.

But, according to the Air Force spokesman Colonel Yuriy Ihnat, this is hardly a workable solution. Russia has between 6,000 and 7,000 S-300 system munitions, which are inaccurate as surface-to-surface missiles but are also abundant and destructive.

At the same time, Ukraine, in any case, will always have a limited number of Patriot interceptors that cost at least $1 million apiece.

So, according to Air Forces Ihnat, its better to combat Russias launchers on the ground with longer-range surface-to-surface missiles like MGM-140 ATACMS, which Ukraine has been requesting from the U.S. for a long time.

Ukraines military did not reveal which version of the Patriot missile system it received.

Defense Express, a Kyiv-based defense consulting agency, identified it as the PAC-3 variant specialized in ballistic targets, the Ukrainian air defenses biggest problem.

The Air Force commander also published a selfie showing him standing next to what the Ukrainian Military Center, a defense expert community, identified as AN/MPQ-53 radar set. This might point out that the first Patriot fire unit acquired by Ukraine belongs to the PAC-2 interceptor family.

PAC-2 is the Patriot upgrade that particularly uses interceptors with blast fragmentation warheads that detonate in the targets proximity and thus destroy it with a certain degree of probability.

The version is believed to have an operational range of up to 160 kilometers and intercepts aircraft and cruise missiles at altitudes of up to 20 kilometers. Regarding ballistic missiles, the operational range is limited to some 40 kilometers.

At the same time, the PAC-3 family uses a more advanced Hit-To-Kill technology designed by Lockheed Martin. It has two interceptors that first destroy an incoming missile by colliding with it in a direct body-to-body impact and then also destroy the falling debris.

PAC-3 is thus expected to provide much more effective protection against ballistic missiles, the successful defense against which demands their complete destruction in the air.

Ever since the early 1990s, both PAC-2 and PAC-3 variants had numerous upgrades enhancing their capabilities.

On April 26, the Ukrainian Air Force reported the second Patriot battery, presumably coming from the United States, as part of a $1.8 billion defense aid package already operational in Ukraine. Its unknown whether the second Patriot battery uses PAC-2 or PAC-3 versions.

Apart from that, Ukraine currently expects transfers from The Netherlands, which vowed to provide Kyiv with not a complete Patriot battery but only two launchers and missiles.

For the sake of comparison, Ukraines president Volodymyr Zelensky in his March 29 speech, said Ukraine needed 20 Patriot batteries. And the U.S. Army itself, according to the 2018 Military Balance database, operates nearly 50 Patriot batteries.

A German-operated MIM-104 Patriot missile fires an interceptor missile during Operation Red Arrow exercise in Greece on October 15, 2008 (Peter Mueller/Bundeswehr)

So the Ukrainian military, with its limited stockpile, will have to decide very carefully between the most important targets deep in Ukraines rear it wants to protect with Patriots.

And it will have to defend the systems themselves. Its very unlikely that Ukraine will get Patriots deployed to front-line areas within the kill zone of Russian aircraft or tube and rocket artillery.

Now, Patriots are becoming a top priority target for Russia, which would get a lot of propagandistic bravado from having a famed U.S.-produced system destroyed in Ukraine.

In Ukraine, MIM-104 Patriot meets possibly the most challenging battlefield it has ever seen throughout its history.

During its debut in the Gulf War of 1990-1991, the Patriots proved, for the first time, that ballistic missile defense was possible.

According to U.S. military statistics from that time, early PAC-2 intercepted 41 out of 42 Iraqi ballistic missiles R-17 Elbrus (more commonly known as Scud). However, the official success rate was severely challenged and declared exaggerated and misleading by a U.S. Congress report released in 1992.

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, PAC-3s and PAC-2 GEM variants were documented demonstrating a success rate of close to 100%, having destroyed 14 Iraqi Scud and Luna-M (FROG-7) tactical ballistic missiles fired at U.S. rear facilities.

Since then, the Patriots have seen constant updates and improvements.

But their actual combat history post-2003 is mostly about the Israeli military downing drones coming from Syria and sometimes failing to intercept. However, in September 2014, an Israeli Patriot downed a Syrian Air Force Sukhoi Su-24 tactical bomber.

Regarding Saudi Arabia, Patriots were also seen engaging the same old Scud missiles fired by Houthi rebels from Yemen, and theres also a history of successes and failures.

The Patriots are now facing a stockpile of far more advanced and variable Russian targets in Ukraine.

According to Ukraines military intelligence, as of late March, Russia had nearly 15% of its pre-2022 tactical missile stockpile, which includes ballistic systems Iskander.

How many missiles does Russia have left?

People have been having this argument since the beginning of Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Western claims that Russia is running out of advanced, high-precision missiles have floated in the news since March. But more than 10 months into the all-out war, Russian missiles continue to rain

Kyiv IndependentIgor Kossov

Nonetheless, despite the alleged degradation, Russia continues with its massive missile attacks on Ukraines territory.

On April 28, according to Ukraines military, Russia fired 23 air-launched Kh-101 and Kh-555 cruise missiles in the first massive strike since March 9. A Kh-101 missile missed by Ukraines air defense hit a residential building in the city of Uman, killing 23, including four children.

Hello! My name is Illia Ponomarenko, the guy who wrote this piece for you.

I hope you found it useful and interesting. I work day and night to bring you quality stories from Ukraine, where Russia is waging the biggest war in Europe since WWII. My little homeland, Donbas, is now the site of the worst fighting. We are helping to keep the world informed about Russian aggression.

But I also need help from every one of you to support Ukrainian wartime journalism by donating to the Kyiv Independent and becoming our patron.

Together, we can help bring peace to Ukraine.

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Patriot air defense faces its toughest challenge ever in Ukraine - Yahoo News