Russia is trying to mess up Ukraine's air defense by deploying decoy flares on its missiles, soldier says

• Russia has started using decoy flares on its missiles, a Ukrainian soldier said.
• The flares can trick air defense systems trying to take them out.
• The soldier said this is a new tactic and is a problem for Ukraine's Stinger missiles.

A Ukrainian soldier said Russia has started adopting a new tactic in its invasion of Ukraine: deploying decoy flares from missiles, which can cause problems for Ukrainian air defense systems.

The soldier, identified as Roman, told the Agence France-Presse news agency this month that his work operating shoulder-fired Stinger antiaircraft missiles has become more complicated.

"The Russians are now firing missiles that release decoy flares during flight, like those on aircraft or helicopters," he said. "This has never happened before and this is a problem for Stingers."

Stinger missiles use infrared to home in on their targets and decoy flares work by tricking tracking systems so that they aim for the hotter flares instead of the target.

A video emerged at the end of December that appeared to show a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile using decoy flares during an attack.

Roman told AFP that Russia wasn't using the tactic until recently.

"About a month ago, we first heard about it," he said.

Roman is part of an air defense unit that helped protect Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, against a huge air attack on January 2. He said he saw Russia's decoy flare tactic in action then, but that it didn't work in that instance.

Roman said he and his team downed two Russian cruise missiles in that attack, using a US-supplied portable system and a ZU-23 antiaircraft gun.

But working to try to stop those missiles was "hard," he said, as his family live in the city.

"My wife and child sleep at home in Kyiv. I understand that I need to work," he added.

On January 2, Russia sent a huge barrage of drones and missiles against Kyiv and the eastern city of Kharkiv.

The commander in chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said almost 100 missiles were fired at the two cities.

Ukraine downed 72 of them, he said.

At least five people were killed and dozens more were injured in the attacks, Ukrainian officials said.

With Russia escalating its drone and missile attacks across Ukraine, including against cities far from the front-line fighting, Ukraine has been pleading with its allies for more air defense systems and ammunition.

Sergiy Nayev, the commander of the joint forces of the armed forces of Ukraine, told AFP last week that Ukraine's mobile air defense groups have "enough ammunition to withstand the next few powerful attacks."

Ukraine's priority is getting more ammunition as the Russians "really want to deplete our air defence system," he said.

An expert told Business Insider last week that Russia's escalation of drone and missile attacks is likely at least partly motivated by its wanting Ukraine to use up its missile defense ammunition.

Ukraine's ability to get significantly more looks challenging: Senate Republicans are blocking President Joe Biden's requests for further funding, and billions in EU funding are being blocked by member state Hungary.

Meanwhile, Russia's attacks have not slowed.

Ukraine said on Sunday that Russia launched 28 attack drones and three cruise missiles overnight, and said on Monday that at least three people had been killed in large-scale missile attacks.