An American-made Patriot missile defense system was likely damaged, but not destroyed, by a Russian missile attack on Kyiv and its surroundings that took place in the early hours of Tuesday May 16. CNN reported this in reference to a source in the White House.
The United States is still assessing the extent of the damage, the source said. This will determine whether the complex should be completely removed or simply repaired on site by Ukrainian personnel.
The Russian Defense Ministry wrote on its Telegram channel on Tuesday that “a high-precision hit from a hypersonic ‘Kinzhal’ missile system in the city of Kiev hit an American-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile system.” .
Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday they had successfully intercepted the six hypersonic missiles fired by Moscow, but Ukraine’s armed forces declined to comment on the Russians’ claim that the Patriot SAM had been hit.
“We cannot comment on this. We will not comment on Russian sources,” Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Serhiy Ignat said.
Currently, two Patriot complexes are operating in Ukraine, one of which was donated to Kiev by the United States and the other by Germany and the Netherlands. It is not known which of these complexes may have been damaged.
Russia has previously attempted to destroy Ukrainian air defense systems with hypersonic missiles, the White House told CNN last week, including such an attack on May 4. It failed: the Ukrainians managed to intercept the missile before it could hit the Patriot, the sources said.
According to US officials, according to CNN, the Russians could pick up signals from the Patriot, which allowed them to target the air defense system with the hypersonic Dagger missile.
The Patriot surface-to-air missile system is equipped with a powerful radar (RLS) to detect airborne targets at long ranges, making it an effective missile defense system capable of intercepting ballistic missiles and other targets.
However, the radar radiation needed to detect threats from a distance allows the enemy, in turn, to detect the Patriot complex and determine its location. As CNN notes, unlike some of the shorter-range missile defense systems transferred to Ukraine, which are more mobile and less vulnerable to missile strikes, the Patriot air defense system is a larger, more stationary system, which may allow the Russians to strike it again.
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