Ukraine said it repelled an unprecedented barrage of Russian missiles over Kiev early Tuesday, denying claims by Moscow that it had successfully knocked out an American-made Patriot system.
The Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said all 18 projectiles, including six hypersonic Kinzhals and nine Kalibr cruise missiles, were shot down overnight. The latest airstrikes, which come more than a year after Russia’s failed full-scale invasion, sparked at least a dozen loud explosions in kyiv around 3 a.m.
“It was exceptional in its density – the maximum number of attack missiles in the shortest period of time,” said Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv city military administration.
Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, claimed on Tuesday that one of the Kinzhals managed to eliminate a battery of Patriot missiles in Kiev, suggesting that his attack was aimed at crushing and destroying Western defense systems recently. received by Ukraine. Russia also said it shot down seven long-range Storm Shadow missiles supplied by the UK, without providing further evidence.
Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, said Russia’s claims were “pure propaganda and pure lies”.
Earlier this month, Kiev said one of two recently delivered US Patriot air defense units shot down a Russian Kinzhal ballistic missile for the first time, displaying a capability that Ukraine did not previously possess.
The strikes came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy completed a three-day tour of Europe, where he met senior officials in the UK, Germany, France and Italy, who promised arms additional Western forces, including air defense systems ahead of a widely expected counterattack. offensive.
“The main results of these days are new weapons for Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in a video address Monday night. “Our victory has come closer,” he added.
Ukraine’s armed forces have yet to launch a campaign to liberate more eastern and southern regions where Russia occupies almost a fifth of the state’s territory. Zelenskyy’s calls for additional air defenses as well as Western fighter jets, equipment not yet delivered, are aimed at providing better cover for troops on the ground.
Both patriots added another layer to Ukraine’s air defenses, which struggled to cope with some of Russia’s more advanced missiles, such as the Kinzhal. In addition to Ukrainian Soviet-era air defense systems, Western allies also provided Nasam systems and a state-of-the-art Iris-T air defense unit from Germany, both of which have a more limited range than the Patriots.
Separately, Russian media said on Tuesday that five border guards were injured in a Ukrainian drone strike on a border control center in the Kursk region on Monday evening. All five were hospitalized in stable condition with shrapnel wounds, according to Baza and Mash, channels of social media app Telegram with ties to Russian security services.
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