Impossible to destroy Patriot system with Kinzhal missile – Air Force Spokesperson

Yurii Ihnat, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force, has said that the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system cannot be destroyed with a single strike, even if it is a Kinzhal missile.

Source: Ihnat on the national joint 24/7 newscast on the morning of 17 May

Quote: "The result of an anti-aircraft battle may vary. But yesterday we even said: ‘no comment’. We have no comment on the liar Konashenkov [spokesperson for the Russian MoD - ed.], who has destroyed the entire composition of our Air Force eight times over. If we had as many planes as they have "destroyed", we would have probably won a long time ago.

I want to say: do not worry about the fate of the Patriots. From a technical point of view, Patriot is a unit, a battery, a division, a system, everyone has a different name for it and no one can understand what it consists of."

Details: Ihnat noted that a division is a command post where a combat service crew is stationed, it tracks air targets and receives information about the air situation in its area of ​​responsibility. This is how it downs air targets.

The system can work in manual, semi-automatic and automatic modes.

The Air Force spokesperson said that it is the automatic operation mode of the Patriot that allows it to shoot down air targets without human intervention, as it did last night: "Automatic mode [allows for better] speed of decision-making, target detection and use of weapons."

He added that the system has radar and up to eight launchers, each equipped with four transport and launch canisters, which are located at a distance and which launch missiles.

Quote: "So, destroying the system with some kind of Kinzhal – that’s impossible. Therefore, let everything they [the Russians – ed.] say remain in their propaganda archive."

Details: Ihnat could not specify the targets of the six Kinzhal missiles shot down over the city of Kyiv on the night of 16 May.

"We know for certain that [the missiles] were flying towards the capital or Kyiv Oblast. This is a fact because everyone saw they were exploding in the sky. If a missile [from air defence – ed.] intercepts a Kinzhal missile or other missiles high in the sky, then we cannot calculate where exactly they were aimed. It’s enough to have a deflection of several degrees – and the missile has already flown a dozen kilometres further," Ihnat said.

"We will not find out where they were aimed because the targets [the Kinzhal missiles – ed.] were destroyed. And it is a good thing that we won’t," he said.

Ihnat added that the Russians have several lists of priority targets throughout Ukraine: military and infrastructure facilities, storage points, and facilities in the fuel and energy sector.

Background: The Russian Ministry of Defence announced on 16 May that "a high-precision strike by a hypersonic Kinzhal missile system in the city of Kyiv hit a US-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile system".

The US has not confirmed the destruction of the Patriot air defence system in Ukraine, however, according to some information, the system may have been damaged.

The White House National Security Council's Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said he could not confirm reports of damage to the Patriot system in Ukraine, but if the American air defence system had been damaged, the United States would help with repairs.

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