The American edition of The New York Times published an article that Ukraine uses expensive air defense missiles to shoot down much cheaper drones. The Air Force decided to explain why this is happening.

The speaker of the Air Force, Yuri Ignat, on the air of the national telethon, noted that he had seen the material published by the American edition. According to him, comparing the prices of air defense missiles and drones, because we are talking about human lives.

Comparing the cost of drones and air defense missiles is incorrect

Yuriy Ignat stressed that Iranian kamikaze drones pose a threat to the life and health of Ukrainians , therefore, in order to protect citizens, the Armed Forces of Ukraine use all available forces and means.

It is incorrect to compare here, I saw this material in the Western press. It sometimes seems to me that in some newspapers in the US and Europe there are columns for Russian propagandists, where contradictory things are published. Ignat said.

The representative of the Air Force recalled that to shoot down hostile targets, our soldiers use expensive missiles and raise aircraft into the sky – all this to protect their country. Ignat stressed that all this is expensive, but the Armed Forces of Ukraine will continue to do it. As an example, the Air Force spokesman cited Israel shooting down cheap missiles with its expensive air defense systems.

If Shahed hits a critical infrastructure facility, people will die and there will be big losses. It is absolutely incorrect to compare, – Ignat emphasized.

What we know about The New York Times article

On January 3, an article appeared about the downing of Iranian drones by Ukrainian air defense, in which NYT journalists referred to Artem Starosek, head of the Ukrainian consulting company Molfar. He noted that it costs at least 7 times more to shoot down one drone. A drone costs 20,000 dollars, and a S-300 missile costs 140. If we talk about the American NASAMS, then this is already 500,000 dollars. However, Starosek emphasized that there is no need to compare prices, because shooting down a drone is easier than repairing an object it hits. In addition, these drones threaten people's lives.

The Molfar company has already criticized the Ukrainian media, which, referring to the article, published materials comparing the cost of air defense missiles and drones with which they are shot down, but did not note why it is still necessary to shoot down drones despite the difference in prices. The company emphasizes that people's lives are priceless, but this message was neglected by some publications. However, later Molfar reported that they apologized for such errors.