Counter-offensive on track despite Russian missile barrages -Ukrainian defence official

Volodymyr V. Havrylov said that alongside cruise missile strikes, Ukraine had faced repeated volleys of ballistic missiles, especially in urban centres including the capital, Kyiv. “Their primary goal is to stop our counter-offensive and target decision-making centres,” he said on the sidelines of Asia’s top security conference, the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

Ukraine's plans for a counteroffensive against Russian occupation remain on track, its deputy defence minister told Reuters on June 3, despite an "unprecedented" wave of missile and drone attacks across the country in recent weeks.

Volodymyr V. Havrylov said that alongside cruise missile strikes, Ukraine had faced repeated volleys of ballistic missiles in May, especially in urban centres including the capital, Kyiv.

"Their primary goal is to stop our counter-offensive and target decision-making centres," he said on the sidelines of Asia's top security conference, the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

Mr. Havrylov called Russia's heavy use of ballistic missiles in May a "last strategic resort" and noted that his country's air defence systems had been "more than 90% effective" against the attacks.

For Russia "it was a huge surprise to find that the effectiveness of [their ballistic missiles] was almost zero against modern air defence systems, which we received from our partners," he said.

The United States and Germany provided Ukraine advanced Patriot missile batteries this year. Ukraine had already received advanced shorter-range systems such as NASAMS and IRIS-T from Western partners.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on June 3 his country was ready to launch a much-awaited counter-offensive. Mr. Havrylov said the missile barrages had not affected the timing.