Ukraine attacks undermine sales of Russian air defense systems – Budanov

Sales of the Russian S-400 air defense system are suffering after Ukraine’s successful attack on Russian targets in occupied Crimea. The head of Ukrainian intelligence, Kirill Budanov, stated this during his stay in the United States in an interview with Drive.

“Ukraine’s armed forces are poking holes in Russia’s claimed military advantage, showing that its next-generation S-400 air defense system is not worth the billions of dollars Moscow is selling it on the global market,” said by Budanov.

The attacks, he said, show that the S-400 Triumph surface-to-air missile system is unable to defend Russia’s occupation of the peninsula, potentially undermining the Kremlin’s sales pitch.

According to Budanov, Ukraine is pursuing short-term military goals by destroying Russian air defense systems. But “from a political point of view, we also show the obvious inconsistency of Russian air defense systems.” And this, accordingly, makes the world’s arms markets less profitable.

The drone attack on Moscow shows that the S-400 “cannot even ensure the security of the Russian capital,” Budanov stressed.

“When the whole world sees that some drones are attacking Moscow, nobody wants to buy Russian air defense systems,” he said, adding that it was very painful for the Russians.

Let’s recall that on September 22, the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was attacked in the temporarily occupied Sevastopol. According to the Main Intelligence Directorate, at least nine members of the Russian headquarters were killed and 16 wounded. Among the latter were Russian generals.