Russia Is Now Short on Air-Defense Missiles Too. The Race Is to Replace Them Cheaply.

For four and a half years the air-defense shortage that mattered was Ukraine's. Ukrainian intelligence now says it is Russia's problem too, and the cost of a single interceptor is becoming the war's decisive number.

What happened

The air-defense shortage that has defined this war has been Ukraine's. Ukrainian intelligence now reports the same pressure building on the Russian side. Three Ukrainian officials told CBS News this week that Russia is running low on S-300 interceptors, the Soviet-era surface-to-air missile that remains a workhorse of Moscow's defenses against cruise missiles, drones, and some ballistic threats. The officials would not put a figure on the current stockpile, but they described a clear reduction and several reasons for it. Ukrainian intelligence estimates reported by The New Voice of Ukraine had put Russia's reserve of S-300PM and S-400 interceptors above 400 in 2025.

Several pressures are draining the stock at once, the officials told CBS News. Russia has been forced to spend interceptors against regular volleys of newer Ukrainian drones, including jet-powered models that fly faster and farther than older types. At the same time, Moscow has repurposed some of its S-300s as offensive surface-to-surface weapons, reconfiguring their trajectories to supplement Iskander-M and Kinzhal strikes on Ukraine. Each S-300 used that way is one fewer left for air defense. The Institute for the Study of War recorded the pace on the night of June 15 to 16: two Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 132 drones launched at Ukraine, of which Ukraine downed 114, even as Ukrainian forces ran their own intermediate-range strikes against Russian targets in occupied Luhansk Oblast.