Over more than six months of war with Russia, a Buk M1 anti-aircraft missile battery, members of which serve under the command of Hero of Ukraine Yaroslav Melnyk has destroyed 28 targets: 11 combat aircraft of various types, 2 helicopters, 2 cruise missiles and 13 UAVs.
Source: Army Inform
Details: Ministry of Defence News Agency released a story, which tells readers about the work of the unit since the beginning of the war. Melnyk’s battery has repelled the enemy in Kharkiv Oblast for half a year. Sometimes anti-aircraft gunners engaged in battles with a dozen or more enemy aircraft.
The battery servicemen also managed to destroy a Russian plane without firing a single missile. The story never revealed the actual time when it happened.
Quote from Melnyk: “We also shot down a plane without firing a single missile. We found the target, [and] we turned on the backlight radar. At this time, radar exposure warning signals sounded in the Ruscist’s [Russian invader’s – ed] cabin. He realised that he had turned from being a hunter to being a target. This probably stunned the pilot so much he immediately ejected. The plane crashed…
This is not the only situation where the result exceeded our expectations. Once we were assigned to detect and destroy two cruise missiles fired by the enemy. Our self-propelled firing system can only operate on one target at a time. So we knew that destroying even one cruise missile would be a great success. We found the target and completed a combat launch. Our anti-aircraft missile exploded in such a way that it damaged two Ruscist cruise missiles with [its own] debris.”
Source: Ukrainian pravda