US-made Patriot missile system damaged by Russian strike on Ukraine remains operational
The United States says a high-tech Patriot missile defence system remains operational after it was damaged by a Russian barrage on Kyiv.
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A high-tech Patriot air defence system provided to Ukraine suffered damage but is still working, according to a US defence official.
“The Patriot system remains operational” and the damage -- caused by an unspecified projectile landing near it -- is still being assessed, the official said.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yury Ignat earlier said that “all is fine with the Patriot,” but declined to specify if the sophisticated system had been damaged.
“The Patriot is in service,” Ignat said. “All is well.”
Kyiv received the first shipments of the American-made Patriot surface-to-air missile system in April, with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg saying that both Germany and the US had delivered batteries to Ukraine.
The Russian defence ministry said Tuesday that its forces had struck a Patriot system in Kyiv with a Kinzhal hypersonic missile.
Kyiv announced Ukraine’s air defence shot down six of Russia’s hypersonic missiles, but Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu rejected that claim.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who unveiled the Kinzhal in 2018, has termed it “an ideal weapon” that is extremely difficult to intercept.
Ukraine repeatedly pushed for the high-tech system to help shield against relentless Russian strikes targeting civilians and infrastructure.
Made by Raytheon, the MIM-104 Patriot is a surface-to-air missile system initially developed to intercept high-flying aircraft.
It was modified in the 1980s to focus on the new threat of tactical ballistic missiles, and was used in combat against Iraq’s Russian-made Scuds in the first Gulf War.
US AND RUSSIAN FIREPOWER IN MASSIVE MISSILE BATTLE
The US and Russia put their top weapons systems to the test in a major missile battle over Kyiv, with both sides of the Ukrainian war claiming victory in the unprecedented barrage.
Sensational video footage showed the Ukrainian night sky lit up with bright flashes in the hypersonic Kinzhal “dagger” missile attack which Moscow says destroyed an American-supplied Patriot air defence system.
Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, claimed they shot down all 18 missiles, including the full volley of six hypersonic Kinzhal missiles that Russia previously claimed could not be intercepted.
The unverified reports of hardware destruction from both belligerent forces come as Kyiv claimed to retake 20 square km of ground in the frontline city of Bakhmut ahead of an expected counteroffensive.
Ukrainian Armed Forces chief Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi said the Russian drone and missile attack was a complex manoeuvre launched from the north, south, and east.
“Six Kh-47M2 Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles were fired from six MiG-31K aircraft, nine Kalibr cruise missiles from ships in the Black Sea, and three land-based missiles (S-400, Iskander-M),” he said on Twitter.
Ukraine’s Minister of Defence, Oleksii Reznikov, added on Telegram the defence of Kyiv’s skies represented “another unbelievable success for the Ukrainian Air Forces”.
Defence studies expert Dr Marina Miron told Sky News that Russia was likely striking cities away from the frontline to deplete Ukraine’s missile reserves.
“We know that Russia’s nuclear triad has lost its deterrent capability. Hence, this is the next best option,” she said.
“Recently leaked documents suggested that Ukraine is in a difficult situation regarding air defence capabilities, and the Russians might be trying to exploit this,” Dr Miron said.
“The overall aim, however, is to destroy the capability of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to launch a successful counter-attack or at least to make it as difficult as possible.”
While Ukraine has yet to launch its counteroffensive, a deputy defence minister said Kyiv’s troops have pushed Russian forces from chunks of territory around the embattled city of Bakhmut in the east of the country.
“In the last few days, our troops liberated around 20 square kilometres (7.7 square miles) in the north and south of the outskirts of Bakhmut,” deputy defence minister Ganna Malyar.
“At the same time, the enemy is advancing in some measure inside Bakhmut itself and is completely destroying the town with artillery.”
RUSSIA LAUNCHES MISSILE STRIKE
Ukraine said on Tuesday it had downed an entire barrage of Russian drones and missiles overnight – including six advanced Kinzhal missiles – hours ahead of a visit from a special envoy dispatched by China.
The wave of strikes came just over a week after Kyiv announced it had shot down a Kinzhal missile for the first time, using US-supplied Patriot systems.
Ukraine’s mounting success in taking out dozens of Russian drones and missiles illustrates its bolstered air defences, after a winter of systemic strikes on key infrastructure.
“Another unbelievable success for the Ukrainian Air Forces!” Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said in a Twitter post.
The defence ministry said Ukrainian air defence systems had knocked out a total of 18 missiles, including types the Kremlin had touted as “ideal”, as well as nine drones.
Beijing’s special envoy, high-ranking diplomat Li Hui, is expected to arrive in Kyiv for a two-day visit, as part of a European tour to promote Beijing-led peace negotiations on the war in Ukraine.
“He’s expected to meet the FM (foreign minister) and other high-ranking officials,” a Ukraine government source told AFP without giving details.
Li will become the highest-ranking Chinese diplomat to visit the war-torn country since Moscow’s invasion last year and his trip comes three weeks after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke by telephone to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
Beijing has said the aim of the tour is to “communicate with all parties on the political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis”.
Xi, who has aimed to position China as neutral and a would-be mediator, visited Moscow in March and has been criticised for refusing to condemn the Kremlin’s war on its neighbour.
The Sun reported Vladimir Putin targeted a Patriot battery during Russia’s latest “merciless” attack on the Ukrainian capital.
The Russian leader is said to have ordered the unprecedented missile strikes in response to the UK sending “game changer” Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine.
The latest influx of supplies for the battlefield enraged the president, with his spokesman vowing there would be an “adequate response”, according to the British newspaper.
BRITS PLEDGE ‘HUNDREDS’ OF MISSILES AND DRONES
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy touched down in the UK on Monday after a hectic European tour to have UK PM Rishi Sunak promise him “hundreds” of air-defence missiles and attack drones, according to the BBC.
Mr Zelenskyy on a visit to Britain Monday won the promise and said his coveted goal of enlisting Western fighter jets was drawing nearer.
The visit came as a Russian missile strike killed four people and hit a hospital in eastern Ukraine, but also as Mr Zelenskyy’s army readies a long-awaited counteroffensive against the Russian invaders with claimed gains around the flashpoint town of Bakhmut.
After meeting UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Mr Zelenskyy said he was “very positive” about creating a “jets coalition” in the war against Russia, with a decision expected “in the closest time”.
Dressed in his trademark fatigues, Mr Zelenskyy gave a bear hug to Mr Sunak after disembarking from a Royal Air Force Chinook helicopter, and thanked him for the latest UK aid.
He said the crisis was a matter of “security not only for Ukraine, it is important for all of Europe”.
Western nations have baulked so far at providing advanced jets to help Ukraine take command of the skies against Russia, although Sunak said the UK was readying to open a flight school to train its pilots.
Russia said the new UK weapons would only cause “further destruction”, and claimed to have downed a Storm Shadow cruise missile that Britain said last week it was providing, in the West’s first deployment of long-range rocketry for Ukraine.
The British attack drones have a reach of more than 200 kilometres, according to the UK government, complementing the long-range Storm Shadow missiles.
It comes as the United States said on Monday that Iran and Russia are “expanding their unprecedented defence partnership,” as Moscow ramps up ties with Tehran after being hit with Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.
“We are using the tools at our disposal to expose and disrupt these activities and we are prepared to do more,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation’s European office decided to close a specialised WHO office in Moscow and move its functions to Denmark, the health body said on Monday.
The move, which was decided during a virtual session held on Monday, follows calls from members last year to shut the office over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On the weekend, Mr Zelenskyy declared Ukraine can beat Russia by the end of the year – with the help of the West.
With Ukrainian troops recapturing around 10 miles around the city of Bakhmut, Mr Zelenskyy said victory was entirely possible.
“We can make the aggressor’s defeat irreversible already this year,” he said during a trip to Berlin where he thanked Germany for being a “true friend and reliable ally”.
EU leaders in Germany hailed the Ukrainian people for fighting for the bloc’s freedom and values, handing this year’s prestigious Charlemagne prize for fostering European unity service towards European unity to the war-torn country’s president.
“Ukraine incarnates everything the European idea is living for: the courage of convictions, the fight for values and freedom, the commitment to peace and unity,” said EU chief Ursula von der Leyen at the award ceremony in the western city of Aachen.
“President Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine are fighting for the values and the obligation that this prize embodies. And in doing so, they are also fighting for our own freedom and our values,” she said in a message echoed by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
For German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Russia’s war on its neighbour had “cemented one clear realisation: Ukraine is part of our European family”.
Mr Zelenskyy landed in Paris on Sunday evening for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.
“Paris. With each visit, Ukraine’s defence and offensive capabilities are expanding,” Mr Zelenskyy tweeted as he arrived at the airbase of Villacoublay southwest of Paris.
“The ties with Europe are getting stronger, and the pressure on Russia is growing.”
Mr Macron shortly afterwards welcomed Mr Zelenskyy to the Elysee Palace, for the second time since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
The French leader’s office said the pair would discuss France’s “support” in responding to “Ukraine’s urgent military and humanitarian needs” during a dinner at the presidential palace.
RUSSIA SUFFERS SETBACK
Two Russian jets and two military helicopters had been shot down near the Ukrainian border, while a fifth aircraft crashed Saturday on the Russian side, according to Russian news reports.
A Su-34 fighter-bomber, Su-35 fighter jet, and two Mi-8 helicopters had been “shot down almost simultaneously” in an ambush in the Bryansk region of Russia, which borders northeast Ukraine, Kommersant, an independent Russian news website, reported.
The aircraft were reportedly a raiding party sent to carry out an attack on Ukraine when they were gunned down.
“According to preliminary data … the fighters were supposed to deliver a missile and bomb attack on targets in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine, and the helicopters were there to back them up – among other things to pick up the ‘Su’ crews if they were shot down,” Kommersant reported.
A helicopter has crashed in the town of Klintsy of the Bryansk region of Russia, state news agency TASS reports, citing emergency services sources.https://t.co/mE1D4WHhzl
— Novaya Gazeta Europe (@novayagazeta_en) May 13, 2023
Video: Telegram channel Mash pic.twitter.com/3NeTywD7xQ
A video posted to the Russian Telegram channel Voyenniy Osvedomitel, a pro-war channel with about a half a million followers, also showed a helicopter exploding in the sky before falling to the ground in flames.
The Russian media outlet Readovka also reported the downed aircraft, which have not yet been independently confirmed.
“Two helicopters and fighter-bombers were shot down by the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the site reported.
Our pilots were ambushed and we are talking about a carefully planned operation.”
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