The story began when the Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Tuesday that a concentrated strike with precision-guided long-range air and sea weapons had been carried out on the deployment points of units of the Ukrainian forces and the storage places for ammunition, weapons and Western aid equipment.
And confirmed that the bombardment hit all the targets, among them the American air defense system “Patriot”, which was destroyed in Kiev with a hypersonic missile “Kingal”.
But the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian forces, Valeriy Zaluzhny, responded by saying that the Ukrainian air defense systems shot down all these 18 missiles launched by Russia, which are 6 “Kinjal”, 9 “Caliber” and 3 “Iskander” missiles. “. “missiles.
Video clips of the Russian strike were shared on social media to the delight of Moscow supporters, while Ukraine supporters responded with negative clips confirming the response to the Russian airstrike and the success of Ukrainian defenses .
Mutual controversy
What added to the controversy was what Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov wrote on Twitter: “Another remarkable achievement by the Ukrainian Air Force. Last night the defenders of our skies shot down 6 Russian Kinjal hypersonic missiles and 12 other missiles.
But Moscow denied this and its defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, said on Tuesday evening that Russia had fired only two Kinjal missiles.
Shoigu added: “Russia has not launched this number of Kinjal missiles, which Ukraine says it shot down”, noting that “the number of these Ukrainian interceptions is three times what we launched”.
On Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the destruction of 22 Ukrainian marches, American and British missiles, the targeting of a Patriot system in Kiev, the downing of two fighter jets in Donetsk and the liquidation of more than 570 militants on all axes. .
American response
CNN quoted an unnamed US administration official as saying, “It is possible that the US-made Patriot system was damaged, but not destroyed, by a Russian missile strike in and around Kiev early Tuesday morning local time”.
The official said the United States was still assessing the extent of the damage. This will determine whether the system should be fully recovered or simply repaired on site by the Ukrainians.
The US network said that Ukraine currently has two Patriot air defense systems in the country, one donated by the United States and the other by Germany and the Netherlands, and it is not known which of these systems may have been damaged.
Confront “Patriot” and “Kingal” in the balance of experts
Russian military expert Alexei Leonkov commented on this confrontation saying, “The destruction of the US Patriot anti-aircraft missile battery by the Russian hypersonic Kinjal missile threatens to leave Kiev without air defense systems.”
He added: “The happiness of the Ukrainian side to shoot down the Kinjal missile during the night raid on Kyiv is short-sighted and incomprehensible.”
He continued: “It can be said that at the cost of the full battery of the expensive American Patriot air defense system, the Ukrainians shot down a Kinjal missile, either out of stupidity or out of desperation to achieve a legendary victory, to destroy the myth Kinjal in Ukraine”, according to the Russian agency “Novosti”.
According to Leonkov, the “Patriot” air defense system is unable to shoot down hypersonic missiles such as the “Kinjal”, because:
The SAM radar cannot track this missile due to the maximum intercepted target speed limit of Mach 3 in the opposite direction since when intercepted, during tracking, the counter missile must fly one and a half times more faster than the “Kingal”, which is not available with the “Kingal”. Patriot”. The United States conducted tests to intercept hypersonic targets using the Patriot naval counterpart of the Aegis missile defense system, which showed the need for a very large number of missiles to intercept hypersonic targets.
However, US military expert Peter Alex told Sky News Arabia that the Kinjal missiles exaggerate their capabilities, and the massive Russian propaganda that erupted around them, especially during the recent confrontation, to salvage the reputation of this weapon.
He added: “These are slightly modified ballistic missiles that fly a bit faster because they are launched from a supersonic aircraft.”
But he added: “The Ukrainians may have exaggerated, but they may have shot down several missiles, although video clips confirm the destruction of at least one Patriot launcher.”
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