Private air defense in Ukraine: how business is involved in shooting down Russian “shaheeds”

In Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense is developing a private air defense system, which has already attracted 24 companies to protect facilities from Russian air attacks. Project participants undergo special training, and private units operate in coordination with the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

This is reported by Radio Liberty .

The private security system provides that, after obtaining the necessary permits and approvals, enterprises can independently organize the protection of their facilities with the help of employees or private security companies. Logistics, energy, manufacturing and trade companies have already joined the initiative.

Training centers with simulators and VR technologies are used to train crews . Cadets learn to operate large-caliber machine guns, FPV drones, and interceptor drones.

“In fact, various types of drones fly there, including “Shahedas” and enemy reconnaissance drones, which fully reflect the physics of flight, as in reality, and pilots practice approach and interception maneuvers,” said Anton Veklenko, head of the training center.

According to him, to intercept air targets, they mainly involve people with combat experience.

“Intercepting an enemy target is the elite of unmanned aviation. And these people already have primary combat experience, we are improving their qualifications specifically for intercepting air targets,” Veklenko noted.

Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Yuriy Myronenko reported that private units are integrated into the overall national air defense system and operate under the control of the Air Force of Ukraine.

“These are quite different companies: critical infrastructure, logistics, and energy companies from different fields. Interest arises from those companies that primarily see a threat to their existence,” said Myronenko.

The Ministry of Defense emphasized that private air defense is not an independent structure and operates exclusively in cooperation with the military command. Permissions to open fire are granted by the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Ruslan, a representative of Carmine Sky, stated that private units perform local tasks to protect facilities and supplement the state air defense system.

“We are only supplementing the classic air defense model. The state air defense plays a more strategic role, and we play a local one,” he said.

The Ministry of Defense also reported that in April, a private air defense unit shot down a Shahed jet for the first time, which was traveling at a speed of over 400 kilometers per hour.

Earlier, one of the companies prepared its own air defense group , which is already operating in the Kharkiv region and has already achieved certain results. Later, it became known that a private air defense group also appeared in the Zhytomyr region , created with the participation of a critical infrastructure enterprise.

Also follow “Pryamim” on Facebook , X , Telegram , and Instagram.