Ukrainian military authorities on Monday activated a nationwide anti-aircraft alert, fearing the possibility of a Russian attack with a Kinzhal supersonic missile, Kiev Air Force spokesman Yurii Ignat said on Monday.
“A warning has been activated throughout Ukraine because a Russian MiG-31K plane has taken off. These are the planes carrying Kinzhal missiles,” Ignat told a news conference, warning that Ukrainian forces do not have anti-aircraft defenses capable of protecting all. the national territory, for this type of projectiles.
“I want to remind you that we don’t have enough Patriot systems that can protect the skies over Ukraine for this type of weaponry,” Ignat said.
“It is an extremely fast and very accurate missile,” he added.
Over the weekend, a Ukrainian military spokesman claimed the interception of a Russian Kinzhal missile over kyiv last week.
According to the same source, Ukrainian forces used the US-made Patriot anti-missile system that was sent to Ukraine in April by NATO allies.
Ukraine did not have, until now, anti-aircraft defense systems capable of intercepting this type of weapon and, according to kyiv, it can only protect areas limited by the number of Patriot systems received.
The Kinzhal (the name means dagger in Russian) are missiles launched from a combat aircraft and have a range close to two thousand kilometers and exceed ten times the speed of sound.
The high-precision hypersonic missile, the manufacture of which was announced in 2017 by the Kremlin, can be equipped with a nuclear or conventional warhead and was first used in 2022 in Ukraine.
Sources at the Center for Strategic Studies say the Kinzhal missiles were sent to Syria in 2021, but there is no evidence of the weapon’s use by Russian forces allied with the Damascus regime.
Source: TSF
