On Saturday, the Ukrainian Air Force said it had shot down a Russian hypersonic missile over Kiev, using the newly acquired US Patriot system, marking the first time it had been able to intercept one of the newest missiles in Moscow.
In a post on the social network Telegram, Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshuk wrote that a Kinzhal ballistic missile was intercepted during a night attack on the Ukrainian capital this week.
It was also the first time that Ukraine used a US Patriot defense systems.
“Yes, we shot down the” only “Kanzal. It happened during the night attack on May 4 over the sky of the Kiev region,” wrote Mykola Oleshuk.
The commander also said that the kh-47 was fired by a MiG-31K coming from Russian territory and was shot down by a Patriot missile.
a Kinzhal is one of the newest and most advanced Russian weapons. The Russian military says the launched ballistic missile has a range of up to 2,000 kilometers and flies at up to 10 times the speed of sound, making it difficult to intercept.
The combination of supersonic speed and heavy warhead allows the Kinzhal to destroy heavily fortified targets such as underground bunkers or mountain tunnels.
The Ukrainian military had already admitted that it lacked the resources to intercept Kinzhal.
Ukraine received the first shipment of missiles Patriot At the end of April, from the United States of America (USA), Germany and the Netherlands, although it did not specify how many systems it received or owned.
Germany admitted that it had sent at least one system and the Netherlands assumed that it had sent two systems.
Defense Minister Oleksey Reznikov said he first requested the Patriot systems when he visited the United States in August 2021, months before Russia’s largely miniscule invasion, but seven years after Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimea.
Oleksey Reznikov described receiving the system as “like a dream” but said he was told in the US it was impossible at the time.
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