MOSCOW, June 5. /TASS/. The deliveries of foreign strike drones to Ukraine are senseless since Russian air defense systems are ‘cracking like nuts’ strike unmanned aerial vehicles, President of Russia Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.
In a fragment of his interview with reporter Pavel Zarubin for the program Moscow. Kremlin. Putin. shown in the Vesti Nedeli (News of the Week) program on the Rossiya-1 TV Channel on Sunday, the head of state gave his assessment of the delivery of foreign armaments to Kiev, in particular, unmanned aerial vehicles.
"It is well known that there are several types of them. First of all, these are strike drones. They have been used since the very beginning. However, they are effectively employed only where there are no battlefield air defenses," Putin said.
Russia does have air defense systems, Putin stressed. "We do have such systems. Buk, Tor and Pantsyr [air defense] systems are highly effective. Our defense systems are operating in such a way, and hope that no one is offended, but they are cracking them [drones] like nuts. Tens and tens of such drones have been eliminated," Putin said.
The Russian leader also pointed to reconnaissance drones on the battlefield. "There are plenty of them flying there now and they have been flying there and have been supplied since the very beginning - all of them are of foreign manufacture," he said.
The Russian leader also mentioned the third type of drones: "strategic reconnaissance drones." "They fly at altitudes of 8, 11, 10 km. They have always been used. They flew over the Black Sea and over Ukraine before the beginning of the operation. It is true that they did not fly into our territory. But they are being employed now and were employed before," the head of state said.
"It is not quite clear for me why to transfer them to Ukraine. Maybe just to deny us the possibility to ground them somewhere and look at their design and I simply see no other reason," Putin said.