Find it, prop it up, shoot it.
The drill is the same for Ukraine's air defense teams, which are working tirelessly to combat the relentless barrage of missiles the Russians launch at Kiev, thwarting in most cases the most intense bombardment of the capital since the first weeks of the war.
In the month of May alone, Russia bombed Kiev 17 times.
A municipal clinic damaged during Russian missile attacks, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 1, 2023. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Kyiv/Handout via REUTERS
It has fired hypersonic missiles from MIG-31 fighters and attacked with land-based ballistic missiles powerful enough to raze an entire apartment block. Russian bombers and ships have fired dozens of long-range cruise missiles, and more than 200 attack drones have engaged in bombing raids aimed at confusing and overwhelming Ukrainian air defenses.
This is a constant struggle for Ukrainian defenders.
Russian attacks can be relentless.
They occur mostly at night, but sometimes during the day, as happened on Monday.
Even when Ukraine manages to launch missiles from the sky, falling debris can cause death and destruction.
Early on Thursday, Russia sent a salvo of 10 ballistic missiles against Kiev; Ukrainian authorities said all were shot down, but that the falling fragments killed three people, including a child, and injured more than a dozen.
Overall, however, very little has penetrated the complex and increasingly sophisticated air defense network around Ukraine's capital, saving dozens of lives.
"We don't have days off," says Riabyi, the callsign for the 26-year-old "shooter" who is part of a two-person anti-aircraft missile crew responsible for protecting an area of the sky outside Kiev.
Defenses
Ukraine's air defenses are a patchwork of different weapons, many of them recently supplied by the West, that protect millions of civilians in Kiev and other cities, as well as critical infrastructure such as four functioning nuclear power plants.
Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, called it "kind of a dog breakfast" of systems.
There are hundreds of people like Riabyi, equipped with American-made Stinger surface-to-air missiles and other man-portable weapons.
Many more operate more complex launchers that have recently arrived, such as the Patriot (American), NASAMS (Norwegian-American) and SAMP/T (French-Italian).
Ukraine also uses German-made Gepard anti-aircraft guns and a mix of Soviet-era air defenses.
Andriy Yusov, spokesman for Ukraine's military intelligence agency, said the recent airstrikes targeting the capital were a "massive and unprecedented" assault aimed at depleting air defense systems, delivering a heavy symbolic blow in the heart of the ancient capital and sowing terror.
President Volodymyr Zelensky again thanked "the defenders of heaven" in his address to the nation Tuesday night.
The battle in heaven, he made clear, is as important as the bloody struggle waged by soldiers on the ground.
Air defense teams have lately managed to shoot down about 90% of the missiles and drones that have arrived and, surprisingly, 100% of the ballistic missiles aimed at Kiev, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
These statistics could not be independently verified.
Air defense assets will also be instrumental in the impending Ukrainian counteroffensive, as they will keep newly acquired weapons safe as they prepare for battle and then provide cover for Ukrainian troops if they manage to break through Russian lines.
Pumps
Riabyi and his partner, Oleg, 38, are responsible for protecting a section of the sky about 10 square kilometers outside Kiev.
When the alarm sounds, they run from a base in the Kiev area to one of the few secret firing positions on the outskirts of the city, remove the tarpaulin from a truck-mounted Stinger system and get ready.
"If an air target approaches our sector, our commander gives us order number 1: find and annihilate," he said, demonstrating the procedure recently at a secret location outside Kiev.
After the team fires, their position is exposed and they have two minutes to move or risk being targeted.
On the side of the team truck, the Ukrainian tridents mark their successes. The first two tridents represent Russian fighter jets that they claimed to have shot down during the early days of the war.
Since then, they have shot down six Orlan reconnaissance drones, two Russian attack helicopters and two Iranian-made Shahed drones.
However, continued success in the skies is by no means assured.
The leaked Pentagon Papers made public in April expressed deep concern that Russia could achieve air superiority when Ukraine ran out of anti-aircraft missiles for the Soviet-designed S-300 and Buk systems that still form the backbone of Ukrainian air defenses.
Since that analysis was leaked, Ukraine's Western allies have stepped up supplies of new systems and ammunition.
The arrival of two Patriot batteries in late April provided Ukraine with its first system designed to shoot down ballistic missiles.
Air defense systems rely on various methods to shoot down missiles.
For cruise missiles traveling at about 800 kilometers per hour, defenders will deploy interceptors that target the missiles for their thermal signature, or paint them with lasers, making them easy targets, among other tactics.
Ballistic missiles can travel at five to ten times the speed of sound.
The Ukrainians attack them with interceptor missiles also capable of traveling at about five times the speed of sound, which have their own guidance and radar to aid in tracking at such high speeds.
The only proven defense against powerful Russian Iskander missiles is the American Patriot air defense system, which can be fired within nine seconds of identifying a target.
Still, Ukraine must make difficult decisions about how to deploy its limited resources.
Karako, of the Missile Defense Project, said the recent attacks on Kiev have shown "how stressful and challenging a concerted air assault can be," underscoring the need for Ukraine to keep building its defenses as the Russians try to wear them down.
Although Ukrainian and Western officials have signaled that Russia is most likely running out of precision missiles and resorting more to less precise missiles and drones, Moscow has shown that it still has the capability to carry out attacks at a regular pace.
Rain of missiles
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion 15 months ago, it has fired more than 5,000 missiles and strike drones at targets across Ukraine, according to a recent study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
But like Russian ground offensives, air assaults have not produced the strategic military effects Moscow desired, according to the study, and Ukrainian air defenses have "largely conditioned the course of the war, limiting Russian strike power."
Yusov, a representative of Ukrainian military intelligence, said the Russians changed tactics after bombing of civilian infrastructure and cities during the winter and early spring failed to cripple Ukraine's ability to function.
Moscow is now targeting more military facilities to undermine the Ukrainian counteroffensive, he said, while targeting Kiev because it remains "an unconquered target for the aggressor."
Peter Mitchell, writing for the Modern War Institute at West Point, claimed that the barrages are designed to fill the air with more incoming targets than defenses can handle, "using a combination of land-, sea-launched or air-launched missile platforms."
For the inhabitants of Kiev, the near-nighttime shelling has been exhausting and terrifying.
The first alarm usually sounds after midnight and assaults last for hours.
"I check the information trying to understand what is flying and from where," said Natalia Ulianytska, 32, a human rights activist living in Kiev.
"When there is a massive missile attack, I go to the bathroom along with my cat," he said.
Ulianytska said she was not so much scared as anxious and "very angry."
He knows when Russian drones and missiles arrive because of the thunderous explosions in the sky.
Even when air defense teams succeed in shooting down a target, there is a danger of burning debris raining down on the streets.
In the past month, several people have been killed and injured by falling debris in Kiev, and dozens of shops and apartment buildings have been damaged.
Riabyi, the gunner, says he has had to learn on the job.
He was still receiving training at a base in western Ukraine when Russia invaded the country.
His wife, pregnant with their first child, fled their home north of Kiev before Russian soldiers occupied the village; Riabyi was sent to Kiev.
Her daughter was born in May, but she didn't see her for the first time until December.
They spent a few days together and then he had to return to his post to help the girl sleep safely.
Anna Lukinova contributed reporting.
Marc Santora is the international news editor in London, specialising in breaking news. He was previously head of the Central and Eastern Europe office in Warsaw. He has also done numerous reports from Iraq and Africa. @MarcSantoraNYT
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