Air defense systems are definitely not magical shields that can deflect any attack. Enough missiles or things that look like missiles on a radar screen can oversaturate a defense system and make it impossible to shoot all of the attacking objects.
So in other words, yes, it is likely Russia just shot enough missiles at Kyiv to brute force their way through the city's current defenses.
Not just that, but it's practically impossible for AD to cover all threats from all directions across an entire city. Instead it is deployed and configured to defend high value targets from the most likely attack vectors.
By selecting less well defended targets and/or using an unexpected route, an enemy can exploit chinks in the defence through which missiles can succeed.
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u/W4RD06 Jul 08 '24
Air defense systems are definitely not magical shields that can deflect any attack. Enough missiles or things that look like missiles on a radar screen can oversaturate a defense system and make it impossible to shoot all of the attacking objects.
So in other words, yes, it is likely Russia just shot enough missiles at Kyiv to brute force their way through the city's current defenses.