By Brandon Drey. Media: DailyWire.
A barrage of Russian missiles damaged a U.S.-made Patriot air defense system near Kyiv early Tuesday morning, weeks after the $1 billion system shot a Russian hypersonic missile out of the sky.
U.S. officials told CNN the extent of the damage is still under assessment and will determine whether Ukrainians can repair the system on the spot.
Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday that Ukraine had successfully intercepted all six hypersonic missiles fired by the Russian military. The attack signaled an air alert, which Ukraineās Ministry of Defense called āone of the most intense attacks on the capital city since the invasion.ā
Russiaās Defense Ministry said on Tuesday in a post on Telegram that a precision strike by a hypersonic Kinzhal missile had destroyed a Patriot air defense system in Kyiv, contradicting the Ukrainian governmentās report.
In a daily briefing on Tuesday reported by RT, Russian ministry officials confirmed the attack, stating that Russia had used long-range precision weapons to strike military targets, including āUkrainian troops positions and places of storage of munitions, weapons and military hardware delivered from Western nations.ā
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu denied Ukraineās claims to Russian state media, saying, āThe Russian Federation has not launched as many āKinzhalsā as they allegedly shoot down every time when making their statements.ā
He added Ukraineās number of intercept attempts was āthree times more than [the missiles] we are launching.ā
āAnd they get the kind of missile wrong all the time,ā Shoigu claimed. āThatās why they donāt hit them.ā
Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat declined to comment on the claim from Russia.
A senior Ukrainian military source told The Telegraph that officials āwere happy to let Russia believe it succeeded in striking the air defense system.ā
āMaybe it was hit by something,ā Justin Crump, CEO of the intelligence consultancy Sibylline, said. āBut itās not going to end the air defense of Kyiv.ā
āWeāll probably wonāt ever know the full detail, but what we definitely didnāt see was lots of Kinzhal landing,ā he added.
Ukraine currently has two Patriot air defense systems ā one donated by the U.S. and one jointly donated by Germany and the Netherlands. The Patriot, an acronym for Phased Array Tracking Radar for Intercept on Target, was designed in the 1970s. The system has been regarded as one of Americaās most advanced surface-to-air missile defense systems and costs approximately $1 billion per installation.
Earlier this month, a U.S.-made Patriot air defense system allegedly shot down a Russian hypersonic missile in Ukraine, marking perhaps the first time a hypersonic missile has been shot down in combat.
Ukraine Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk claimed Ukraine used the newly-acquired weapon from the U.S. to shoot down a Russian hypersonic missile called Kinzhal, or āDaggerā in Russian.