kyiv, Ukraine.- Ukraine claimed on Saturday that it shot down a Russian Kinzhal supersonic missile for the first time this week, during a wave of attacks from Moscow on Wednesday night into Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin himself presented the Kinzhal missile in 2018, describing it as an “ideal weapon” due to its difficulty to be intercepted.
“And yes, we have shot down the ‘unrivaled’ Kinzhal missile,” General Mikola Oleshchuk said on Telegram. “I congratulate the Ukrainian people on this historic event.”
The Ukrainian Air Force claimed on Saturday that it shot down the Russian hypersonic missile over Kiev using newly acquired American Patriot defense systems, the first time the country is known to have been able to intercept one of Moscow’s most modern missiles.
“Yes, we took down the ‘only’ Kinzhal,” Oleshchuk wrote. “It happened during the night attack on May 4 in the skies over the kyiv region.”
Oleshchuk said the Kh-47 missile was launched by a MiG-31K aircraft from Russian territory and shot down by a Patriot missile.
The Kinzhal is one of the most recent and advanced Russian weapons. The Russian military says the air-launched ballistic missile has a range of up to 2,000 kilometers and flies at 10 times the speed of sound, making it difficult to intercept.
A combination of hypersonic speed and a heavy warhead allows Kinzhal to destroy heavily fortified targets such as underground bunkers or mountain tunnels.
The Ukrainian military previously admitted that it lacked the assets to intercept the Kinzhals.
“They were saying that the Patriot is an outdated American weapon and that Russian weapons are the best in the world,” Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat told Ukrainian TV channel 24. “Well, there is confirmation that it works effectively. even against a super hypersonic missile.”
He said that successfully intercepting the Kinzhal was “a slap in the face for Russia.”
Ukraine received its first delivery of Patriot missiles in late April. It has not specified how many of the systems it has or where they have been deployed, but they are known to have been provided by the United States, Germany and the Netherlands.
