Russia Plans to Increase Ballistic Missile Salvoes to 200
Robert 'Magyar' Brovdi tells AP that Russia can currently fire 77 ballistic missiles at once but is working to raise that number to 200, posing a serious threat to Ukraine's air defense.
Robert 'Magyar' Brovdi tells AP that Russia can currently fire 77 ballistic missiles at once but is working to raise that number to 200, posing a serious threat to Ukraine's air defense.
Commander of Ukraine's unmanned forces, Major Robert 'Magyar' Brovdi, warned in an interview with the Associated Press on Monday, August 10, 2026, that Russia plans to significantly increase its capacity for simultaneous ballistic missile launches. According to him, Russian forces can currently fire a salvo of 77 ballistic missiles, but they are working to raise that number to 200.
"Even if they only manage half of that, it will all be flying toward us," Brovdi told AP, emphasizing Ukraine's vulnerability given the dwindling stockpiles of interceptors for American Patriot systems, which are Ukraine's only defense against ballistic missiles.
Brovdi stressed that the number of Russian missiles can only be reduced by striking every facility involved in their production. This underscores the importance of Ukraine's long-range strikes deep inside Russian territory, which have become a key element of Kyiv's strategy.
In addition to the ballistic missile threat, the commander warned of an increase in the concentration of Shahed jet drones, which are significantly harder for Ukraine to shoot down. In recent weeks, their concentration has increased two and a half times.
Brovdi's forces are currently equipped with only 14 percent of what they would need for full capacity in the campaign on Crimea, the peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. "Crimea is one of the key conceptual pillars on the path to ending the war," he said.
Despite the lack of equipment, Ukraine's summer campaign on Crimea, launched in late June 2026, has already inflicted significant damage on Russian forces. In recent months, more than 300 air defense systems have been destroyed, including radar stations and electronic warfare equipment. As a result, in four recent major Russian missile attacks from the peninsula, only five missiles were fired.
"It's not that the production capacity of Ukrainian manufacturers doesn't allow us to make the necessary quantities of drones. It's a banal problem of untimely financing, which our partners allocate, but which moves significantly slower than our plans," Brovdi explained.
With faster financing, his forces could target seven times more targets in Crimea, where, thanks to Starlink connectivity, they can destroy even the best-defended targets using an average of just three drones.
Brovdi confirmed that Ukraine is increasingly targeting Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, calling it a "war quartermaster" due to its dedicated department for selling military equipment. "Ultimately, Wildberries is, pardon the expression, a consumer gambling addiction," he said, adding that losing access to the platform puts pressure on the Russian population to feel the war directly.
He also warned of broader implications: Russia is developing its own satellite communication system to compete with Starlink. "This is a risk for the entire planet, because a dictatorship will gain access to information across the globe," Brovdi concluded.
