In mid-October 2025, the offensive and defensive situation in the Russia-Ukraine battlefield once again attracted global attention. The continuous precision strikes launched by the Russian army not only severely damaged the Ukrainian army's drone combat network, but also pushed NATO's proud "Patriot" air defense missile system to the focus of public opinion.

The latest data released by the Russian Ministry of Defense shows that since the launch of the special military operation, the Russian army has successfully destroyed 29 sets of "Patriot" systems equipped by the Ukrainian army. This weapon, which has been rendered as an "air defense artifact" by the West, is gradually becoming a Battlefield scrap metal.

Russian army directly attacks Ukrainian army drone hub

On October 17, the Russian military launched an iconic precision strike against the Ukrainian military's frequent use of long-range drones to attack Russian territory targets.

The target of the operation was locked in the Maltovoy region, about 50 kilometers east of the city of Kharkov, where due to the proximity to the Russian border and the convenience of transportation, the Russian military was judged to be the Ukrainian long-range drone to attack the core front-end launch site in Russia, a large number of "Lyuvy" long-range drones departed from here, attacked Russian energy power plants, railway assembly stations and other critical infrastructures, and some attacks also affected residential areas.

The Russian military short-range ballistic missile "Iskander", the ballistic missile with a length of 7.2 meters and a weight of 3.8 tons, achieved 2 meters of command accuracy with the "triple guidance system" - inertia navigation laid the base direction, the Glonass satellite signal corrected the trajectory, and the end-stage scene matching system recognized the target terrain like the human eye.

After the missile precision target, the destruction of 65 long-range drones, 5 drone launches and 4 refuelling trucks, resulting in the deaths of more than 30 Ukrainian soldiers, directly paralyzed the Ukrainian military's drone combat capabilities in the direction of Kharkov.

This is not the first targeted reaction of the Russian military, on October 16, the Russian armed forces fired 26 tactical ballistic missiles "Iskander-M", carried out cover-up strikes on Ukrainian military targets, 26 missiles are all in precision command, and the Ukrainian deployment "Patriot-2/3" system did not perform any effective interception, exposing its defensive vulnerabilities under high-intensity strikes.

"Patriots" lost one after another on the battlefield

On October 19, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation issued a war report more impactful: the Russian military launched two "Iskander" ballistic missiles, successfully destroying a U.S. "Patriot" air defense system located near Pavlovsk, Dnipropetrovsk state. Pavlovsk as the central military industrial and air defense deployment core zone of Ukraine, the "Patriot" system has repeatedly undertaken the task of intercepting Russian missiles and drones, and is seen by Ukraine as a "core barrier" to resist air strikes.

It can be seen from the battlefield video that under the real-time guidance of the "Haiying-10" drone, the Russian missile headed straight for the target. At the moment the Ukrainian army position launched two interceptors, the missile hit the air defense radar, and the position immediately fell into fire. This tactical combination of "reconnaissance-waiting-lore" has become a typical model for the Russian army to hunt "patriots".

In fact, the influence of the "Patriot" system has already emerged in 2025, the report of the US Defense Intelligence Agency pointed out that Russia by continuously upgrading ballistic missile technology, leaving the "Patriot" in the offensive game, at present the Ukrainian military has only five sets of "Patriot" systems, respectively from the United States (3 sets), Romania (1 set) and DHU (1 set), these systems in 2022 to early 2023 had won praise for the successful interception of the "Iskander-M" and "Hadge" missiles, but facing the Russian military's improved weapons have failed.

The report released jointly by the U.S. Department of Defense, the State Department and the International Development Agency revealed the key reason: Russian ballistic missiles have end-end maneuverability, can be drastically evaded with 30G overload ¨C equivalent to three times the maximum overload of fighters, while equipped with a radar induction system and hidden design, the surface of the bullet absorption material compresses the radar reflection area to the extreme.

Among the attacks on June 28, 2025, only one of the seven Russian ballistic missiles was shot down by the Patriots, the offensive of late night on May 23 to the morning of May 24 was more representative, the Russian military launched 480 different types of cruise missiles, drones, cruise missiles and 14 ballistic missiles, the Ukrainian "Patriot" position launched 14 interceptors in 30 minutes, but mostly consumed on the interception of drones, and ultimately three missiles broke the position in the defensive line, triggering a series of explosions.

During the Kiev defensive battle on July 31, the Ukrainian army intercepted 288 drones, but only three of the eight Iskander missiles were intercepted, further confirming the system's shortcomings.

The predicament is hard to break

Faced with the poor performance of the "Patriots", Ukraine tried to reverse its decline through additional purchases. On October 19, President Zelensky revealed at a press conference that Ukraine is preparing to sign a subscription agreement with US defense companies for 25 sets of "Patriots" systems, which may be delivered in batches annually. However, he also admitted that since many countries had previously signed order agreements, the Ukrainian army had to wait in line and was currently seeking concessions from European countries to obtain priority delivery rights.

Zelensky said Russia's frozen overseas assets can be considered a priority source of funding for purchases, but the idea still has many obstacles at the level of international law, more importantly, the single set "Patriot" system costs more than $ 1 billion, the purchase of 25 sets of systems and the cost of subsequent maintenance can be astronomical for Ukraine.

Even if the Ukrainian army successfully obtained this batch of equipment, it is still questionable whether it can change the battle scene, the Russian army has formed a mature "patriot" hunting system: first with the "Krasuh-4" electronic warfare system to suppress the battlefield GPS signal, so that the "patriot" was forced to switch to a less accurate pure radar-guided mode.

With the "Iskander-K" cruise missile at an ultra-low air altitude of 7 meters, drilled through the radar detection blind zone; eventually with a multi-wave saturation attack break through a single fire unit of only 8 launches, this combined tactic has repeatedly verified the effect, so that the "patriotic" technical disadvantages are exposed.

The Russian Defense Ministry¡¯s data is even more brutal: 29 ¡°Patriot¡± systems have been destroyed, more than half of the total number of Western aid to Ukraine.The Russian military spokesman stressed that precise strikes on Ukrainian air defense systems, drone production plants and supply lines will continue, and high-value targets such as ¡°Patriots¡± will be a priority target.

small closed

From being highly praised to being scrapped one after another, the battlefield situation of the "Patriots" also shows that weapon advantages have always been relative, and technological iteration and tactical innovation are the key to determining victory or defeat.

The total number of Russian "Iskander" missiles launched has exceeded a thousand, striking targets extending from air defense systems to key nodes such as command hubs, arms warehouses.

The Ukrainian army, on the other hand, hoped for more Western armament aid, but from the viewpoint of the "Patriot"'s real-world performance, it was difficult to reverse the situation on the battlefield by relying solely on equipment stacks. German Rheinmetall and American Loma have urgently launched the GMARS rocket system project, trying to replicate the Russian "asymmetric strike" thinking, which from the side indicates the Western reflection on the existing weapons system.

The reality of the battlefield has proven that no weapons can function alone from the operational system. The "patriots" who were once served by NATO as the "air defense mark" in the face of the Russian military's multi-dimensional operational system, 29 sets of system waste data, is the most direct face to the western weapons myth.

The direction of this game of offense and defense remains to be seen, but the revelation it leaves is clear: in the modern battlefield where technology is rapidly iterated, only by maintaining innovation vitality and system coordination capabilities can we seize the initiative.

Zelensky: ready to order 25 sets of "Patriot" systems

Financial Associated Press "Russia claims to attack Ukrainian military targets, Ukraine claims to prevent the Russian army from attacking"