They are clumsy and noisy and are relatively easy to shoot down from the sky.. Over the course of the New Year weekend, the Ukrainian military claimed to have shot down every one of more than 80 drones that Russia sent towards the country..

“Such results have never been achieved before,” Yury Ignat, spokesman for the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said on Tuesday..

But behind this result lies the question of how long Ukraine can sustain its efforts when many of its defense measures cost far more than drones.? This is stated in the article The New York Times.

Shahed-136 drones used by Russia and supplied by Iran are relatively cheap, experts say, while the weapon system used to shoot them down from the sky is much more expensive..

Artem Starosek, head of Molfar, a Ukrainian consulting firm that supports the country's war effort, has calculated that using a missile to shoot down a drone costs seven times as much as launching one.. Iranian drones can cost as little as $20,000 to produce, while the cost of launching one of Ukraine's surface-to-air missiles could range from $140,000 for a Soviet-era S-300 to $500,000 for NASAMS, or.

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According to some analysts, this imbalance over time could be in favor of Russia, costly Ukraine and its allies..

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a recent evening video message that Russia is banking on "

According to Molfar, Russia has launched about 600 drones in Ukraine since September. The campaign, which gained momentum just as Moscow was suffering a string of losses on the battlefield, caused rolling blackouts and power outages as the country entered a harsh winter, exacerbating the suffering caused by a full-scale Russian invasion.

Both sides use drones not only for reconnaissance, but also for attacks, for the first time widely using them in a European war..

The military leadership in Kyiv says little about the details of their air defense in accordance with the operational secrecy that shrouded much of their military planning, or about cost, which makes analysis difficult..

Ukrainian forces have used anti-aircraft guns and small arms to shoot down some of the drones, but increasingly, Kyiv is also relying on missiles fired from warplanes and from the ground as the Russians began launching attacks at night.. Officials say Ukraine has repeatedly used surface-to-air missiles known as NASAMS.

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Michael Kofman, an expert on the Russian military at the CNA Research Institute, said the Ukrainians are using a "

Some of the Ukrainian anti-aircraft guns, such as the Gepard-2 radar mobile gun system, are inexpensive compared to other Soviet and European defense systems.. And American-made interceptor missiles are relatively expensive..

Despite this, Starosek notes, the costs of shooting down drones with missiles should be considered in the context of.

Shooting down a drone costs far less than repairing a damaged or destroyed power plant, he said.. And there is also the human factor..

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In a report released Nov. 7, Molfar said 82% of the drones were shot down, but that figure has since risen.. According to them, Ukraine depends on its allies, the main of which is the United States, to replenish its air defense systems and pay bills.. There is a danger that over time these allies may tire of these expenses..