In a post on the Telegram social network, Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote that the Kinzhal-type ballistic missile was intercepted during a night attack on the Ukrainian capital this week.
It was also the first time Ukraine used US Patriot defense systems.
“Yes, we shot down the ‘only’ Kinzhal. It happened during the May 4 night attack in the skies over the Kiev region,” wrote Mykola Oleshchuk.
The commander also said that the kh-47 missile was launched by a MiG-31K aircraft, coming from Russian territory and shot down by a Patriot missile.
The 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 hypersonic speed and a heavy warhead allows the kinzhal to destroy heavily fortified targets, such as underground ‘bunkers’ or mountain tunnels.
The Ukrainian army had already admitted that it did not have the resources to intercept the Kinzhals.
Ukraine received its first delivery of Patriot missiles at the end of April, coming from the United States of America (US), Germany and the Netherlands, although it did not specify how many systems it received or has.
Germany acknowledged to have shipped at least one system and the Netherlands undertook the shipment of two systems.
Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said he first requested Patriot systems when he visited the US in August 2021, months before Russia’s largely scant invasion but seven years after Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.
Oleksii Reznikov described receiving the system as “like a dream”, but said he was told in the US that it was impossible at the time.
Source: DN
