Ukraine Downs 6 Russian Hypersonic Missiles With Western Air Defenses
The Kinzhal missiles are touted by Russia as near invincible
Amidst intense Russia air raids on Ukraine Monday night, Kyiv said on Tuesday it shot down six enemy hypersonic Kinzhal missiles. The feat is the first claim by Ukraine that it struck an entire volley of multiple hyper-sonic missiles, including the Kinzhal super weapon, with the newly deployed western air defenses.
Reuters, quoting Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief, Valery Zaluzhnyi, reports that the six Kinzhals ballistic missiles, with a travel speed of up to 10 times the speed of sound, are among the 18 missiles launched overnight at Ukraine by Russia but blasted into light flashes, raining debris on the ground afterwards and wounding three people in Kyiv. There is however, no immediate reaction yet from Moscow.
"It was exceptional in its density-the maximum number of attack missiles in the shortest period of time," Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's city military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Zaluzhnyi added that his forces intercepted the six Kinzhals launched from aircraft, as well as nine Kalibr cruise missiles from ships in the Black Sea and three Iskanders fired from land.
It would be recalled that Ukraine claimed it shot down a single Kinzhal missile over Kyiv for the first time, using a newly deployed U.S. Patriot air defence system, a previously theoretical reality now made real by the downing of six of the Kinzhal missiles.
Ukraine has recaptured several square kilometres of territory on the Northern and Southern flanks of Bakhmut in the past one week, the biggest gains on the battlefield since last November. But Kyiv played down the feat, insisting the advances are localized and not a representation of its upcoming counter offensives expected to feature hundreds of Western modern tanks and armoured vehicles.
Though Moscow has acknowledged troop retreat in some areas but denied that its battle lines are crumbling on the city's flanks.
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