A week after Ukraine downed Kinzhal missile, Russia comes up with reasons why it is impossible
Russian propaganda has claimed that the US Patriot anti-aircraft system could not have shot down a Russian air-launched Kinzhal ballistic missile.
Source: Russian Kremlin-aligned news agency RIA Novosti with reference to a "high-ranking source in the Ministry of Defence of Russia".
Quote: "The American Patriot anti-aircraft system could not have shot down the Kinzhal missile since it is not able to intercept targets at such speed."
Details: The Russians insist that the Kinzhal’s flight speed exceeds the limit state of the anti-aircraft systems Kyiv has been supplied with, and at the end of its trajectory, the missile, much-lauded by Russians, allegedly manoeuvres and strikes the target almost vertically.
According to the source of the Russian propagandists, "all this rules out the possibility of interception, so the claims about the downing of this missile are just wishful thinking."
Background:
- On 6 May, Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk, the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, confirmed that the Ukrainian military had shot down a Russian Kinzhal missile using the Patriot system.
- On Tuesday, 9 May, Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, spokesman for the Pentagon, confirmed the Ukrainians’ statement that a Russian Kinzhal missile, flying at hypersonic speed, had been shot down using a Patriot air defence missile system.
- On 10 May a journalist for the German news outlet Bild posted a video and photos of fragments of the Russian Kinzhal missile shot down in Ukraine.
- The Russians refer to the Kinzhal as a hypersonic missile, but the Ukrainian military uses the term aeroballistic.
Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!
