2023-05-06 17:30:18
Ukraine confirms in a “historic event” the shooting down of the “invincible” Russian “Kinzal” missile with the “Patriot” system
In a “historic event”, if its evidence is correct, Ukraine announced that its air defenses were able to shoot down a “Kinzal” missile, meaning “dagger” in Russian, using the American “Patriot” system, which it received last month from the United States.
The Russian missile was among a group of weapons that the Russian president announced in 2018, that he was “invincible” and that he was able to avoid all Western defenses because of its high speed, which Moscow estimated at more than 12,000 kilometers per hour.
And the Ukrainian Air Force confirmed, on Saturday, that it used the “Patriot” system to intercept the most advanced missile in Russia’s arsenal, for the first time over Kiev this week.
This is the first declaration in which Ukraine says its military has used the advanced American system, which Ukrainians have often desired to have.
Gen. Mykola Oleshuk, commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, said the Patriot system was used to shoot down a Kinzhal missile that Russia fired at the capital on Thursday.
“I congratulate the Ukrainian people on a historic event,” he said in a statement on the Telegram app. Yes, we have brought down the incomparable Kinzal. He added that the army withheld reporting on the use of Patriot to protect operational security, and urged the public not to share information regarding air defenses because they are working to confront Russian missiles and drones. He said, “We will certainly report what we shot down, where and when. Everything in its time.
So far, Russia has not commented on Ukraine’s claims of shooting down the missile, and there has been no confirmation from the United States or Ukraine’s Western allies regarding the use of the Patriot, and whether it shot down a hypersonic missile.
Although the Patriot is one of the most expensive defense systems provided by Washington to Kiev, with a cost of regarding $1.1 billion per system, its ability to shoot down hypersonic missiles has not been revealed yet.
If this is confirmed, it will constitute a “symbolic” military and moral strike, in addition to the setbacks suffered by Russian weapons in the Ukraine war, since the sinking of the famous Russian cruiser “Moskva” last year, in addition to effectively neutralizing its air force from the battlefield over Ukraine’s airspace.
Ukraine had appealed to the Pentagon to provide it with the “Patriot” system since the beginning of the war, to counter Russian air and long-range ballistic missile attacks, especially hypersonic missiles such as the “Kinzal”. The White House approved this request last December, and received it last month. According to eyewitnesses, the powerful explosion that resulted from the missile dropping over Kiev shook buildings, and its fragments were scattered in the streets not far from the government complex.
Experts believe that the missile was apparently on its way to target the neighborhood, in response to the Kremlin’s allegations regarding Kiev’s involvement in the supposed two-marches attack to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kiev and other cities across Ukraine have been bombarded with missiles, drones and bombs for more than a year, and thousands of civilians have been killed in Russian attacks.
The attacks on Kiev from Iranian-made drones have been repeated over the past two weeks, according to Ukraine.
More than a year following the start of the war, it seems that Ukraine has practiced shooting down cruise missiles and drones, with more than 80 percent of those attacks, according to Ukrainian and Western military experts.
The “Kinzal” is a modified version launched from the air from long distances and high altitude, of the Russian “Iskander” ballistic missile, which was designed to be launched from platforms mounted on trucks.
Russia developed “Kinzal” to breach US missile defense systems, by enabling its fuel payload to increase its speed by five times the speed of sound, and its ability to maneuver in a way that makes it almost impossible to shoot it down.
Ukraine said that since the beginning of the war, Russia has launched regarding 50 missiles from it, especially at its infrastructure and sources of electric energy.
And while the missile can reach its targets from anywhere from which it is launched within minutes, the Americans assert that the Patriot system can effectively counter ballistic missiles, within the so-called “multi-layered defense” that includes other air defenses used to shoot down or neutralize Drones and warplanes, as well as a range of cruise and ballistic missiles.
After Washington pledged to hand over the Patriot system, Ukrainian soldiers underwent an intensive 10-week training course in the United States to practice operating it, which ended in late March, and began training other groups in Ukraine.
As for the current battles, the head of the Russian paramilitary “Wagner” group announced on Saturday that he had asked Moscow for permission to hand over his group’s sites in the city of Bakhmut, the center of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, to the forces of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, in protest of the lack of ammunition.
Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a letter addressed to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu: “I ask you to issue a combat order, before midnight on May 10, to transfer the positions of the (Wagner) group to the Ahmed Brigade units in Bakhmut and its surroundings.”
The President of Chechnya, Kadyrov, said earlier that men from Ahmed’s Chechen special forces might take over the positions of the “Wagner” group’s mercenaries in the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, where the conflict is raging, and carry out military tasks instead of the “Wagner” forces in that region.
On Friday, the Ukrainian army responded to the threats of the head of the “Wagner” group to withdraw from Bakhmut, and military intelligence representative Andriy Chernyak told the Ukrainian news agency RBK that the army had not seen any signs of an imminent withdrawal of Russian mercenaries from Bakhmut.
“These statements were made once morest the backdrop that Prigozhin might not fulfill an earlier promise to take Bakhmut by May 9,” Chernyak said.
He added that Prigozhin was just trying to shift the responsibility onto others. The Ukrainian military also described Prigozhin’s claim that Russian forces were short of ammunition.
“Today alone, 520 rounds of artillery of various types were fired in Bakhmut and the surrounding area,” army spokesman Serhiy Chervati said. More than a year following the war, power struggles are emerging within the Russian military leadership.
Prigozhin recently complained publicly regarding the lack of ammunition, and announced on Friday that he was withdrawing his fighters for this reason.
Prigozhin has since published a letter to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu asking him to order the sites to be handed over to President Kadyrov’s men.
The message added that this process is supposed to be completed by midnight next Wednesday. The Russian army, which is fighting in the town of Bakhmut alongside the forces of the “Wagner Group” in costly battles, did not comment on Prigozhin’s threats and accusations.
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