According to the Ukrainian Air Force, it has successfully launched a Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missile. “I congratulate the Ukrainian people on a historic event!” Ukrainian Air Force Chief Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday. “Yes, we shot down the ‘Incomparable’ Kinshah,” he added, using the missile’s type name.
The Kinschal, repeatedly touted by Moscow as one of the best missiles of all, was intercepted over the Kiev region on Thursday night with the help of the US Patriot defense system.
Russian President Vladimir Putin introduced the Kinshah in 2018. He described it as “an ideal weapon” that would be very difficult to intercept with a missile defense system. Ukraine has asked its western allies to step up air defenses. Russia fired massive aerial fire on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure last winter.
The first Patriot systems were delivered to Ukraine in mid-April. Patriot is considered the most advanced air defense system in the United States. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the system would “significantly” strengthen defenses against Russian attacks.
Previously, there had been speculation in Ukraine, which had been defending itself against a Russian war of aggression for more than 14 months, that Kinzhal had been shot down. Military bloggers, for example, published photos that are supposed to show the debris from the rocket. The information could not be independently verified. There was also no reaction from the Russian side.
The eight-meter-long Kinzhal rocket, whose name translates to “dagger” in German, is particularly feared because it can fly extremely high and extremely fast. It is therefore considered to be particularly difficult to intercept. If the Ukrainian air defense actually managed to shoot down such a thing, it would not only be a military success, but also an important symbolic one.
According to Russian information, the Russian army has fended off a Ukrainian missile over the Crimean peninsula, which has been annexed by Russia since 2014. “Air defense fired a ballistic missile over the Republic of Crimea,” Moscow-appointed Crimean governor Sergey Aksyonov told Telegram on Saturday. The missile was launched using Ukraine’s Hrim-2 system and there was no damage or casualties, he added.
His adviser, Oleg Kryuchkov, later stated that, according to updated information, two Hrim-2 missiles had been shot down. AFP could not initially confirm the information from an independent source.
This is the second time Russian authorities have reported Ukrainian Hrim ballistic missiles over Crimea, according to the state-run Russian news agency Tass. There was another such incident just last month.
Since the summer of 2022, there have been regular explosions from drone attacks in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. In late April, a drone attack sparked a massive fire at a fuel depot in the port city of Sevastopol, where Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is based.
The latest incident occurred against the background of increasing drone attacks, acts of sabotage and alleged attacks on Russian territory, the perpetrators of which could not be clearly identified – sometimes far from Ukraine.
The Kremlin has accused Ukraine of being behind the attacks. Kyiv rejects this. A major offensive by the Ukrainian armed forces seems to be on the horizon.
