Ukraine Video Shows ‘Critical’ Russian Tor System Wiped Out in Drone Strike

Ukraine has taken out one of Russia’s prized air defense systems, according to Kyiv, as Moscow and Kyiv attempt to whittle down one another’s ground-based air defense networks.

A Ukrainian attack drone targeted and destroyed a Russian Tor air defense system at an undisclosed location along the country’s border with Russia, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said on Saturday. Russian air defenses attempted to intercept the Ukrainian drone “but missed,” Ukraine’s GUR said in a post to social media.

Ukraine used a Polish-made Warmate kamikaze drone in the strike, the Ukrainian defense ministry said in a post to X.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

The SA-15 Tor, also known as “Gauntlet,” is one of Russia’s main air-defenses deployed in Ukraine. It is a mobile, surface-to-air system which has a maximum range of just under 10 miles.

It comes in several variants, and has been one of Ukraine’s main military targets throughout the war. Both Moscow and Kyiv have hunted one another’s ground-based air defense systems, a battle that is “one of the most important contests of the war,” the U.K. Defense Ministry said in early December.

Ukraine has been hunting Russia’s network of air defenses like the short-range Tor. It has also channeled its resources into eliminating Russia’s medium-range Buk and longer-range defenses, such as the S-300s and S-400s that Moscow has used extensively against Ukraine.

Kyiv’s forces have previously shared footage of Tor systems being destroyed in combat operations, including ones that were targeted by drones. The Gauntlet is designed to take down enemy aircraft, drones, guided missiles and other precision munitions at medium to low altitudes.

The British Defense Ministry early last month described the SA-15 as playing a “critical and largely effective role” in Russian operations in Ukraine, adding the Gauntlet is protecting Russia’s ground troops on the front line.

But “one of the key limitations of the system in the current war is likely the endurance of its crew,” the British government said.

With three people assigned to each system, keeping an SA-15 alert and ready for long periods of time is “highly likely proving an extreme test of endurance,” the U.K. said.

The first Tor system entered development in the 1980s, and debuted in 1986, according to the U.S. think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The Tor-M, the first upgraded version of the original system, entered service in 1991, the think tank said. A later version, the Tor-M2, was designed to target incoming threats, such as large numbers of drones.