Kyiv air defences get the better of Russia’s latest missile attack

Ukraine claims to have shot down six hypersonic missiles fired at Kyiv, defeating advanced Russian weaponry the Kremlin had once boasted was invincible.

An explosion is seen over Kyiv during a Russian missile strike. Picture: AFP

Ukraine claims to have shot down six hypersonic missiles fired at Kyiv, defeating advanced Russian weaponry the Kremlin had once boasted was invincible.

The next-generation weapons, each costing more than $5.5m, are believed to have been shot down by Western-provided Patriot-MIM 104 missile systems. Video from Kyiv shared on social media appeared to show a series of air defence launches flashing white against the cityscape.

The six Russian “Daggers” were part of an “exceptionally complex” bombardment of the capital overnight on Tuesday by 18 missiles of three different types and a wave of kamikaze drones, Ukrainian officials said. The strikes had begun at 3.30am local time, fired from the north, south and east by air, land and sea platforms, Ukraine’s air force said. All the projectiles were destroyed, it added, although falling debris was said to have injured three people in the capital.

“Another unbelievable success for the Ukrainian air forces!” Oleksii Reznikov, the Ukrainian Defence Minister, said on Twitter.

It comes after five Russian aircraft were brought down inside Russian territory as they approached the Ukrainian border.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had been targeting the Patriot systems and claimed to have destroyed one launcher. It showed a video of the apparent Patriot launches that then cut to another video appearing to show the flash of an impact on the ground to illustrate its claim, which Kyiv denied.

“Dagger” missiles are claimed to have a range of almosy 2000km and a maximum speed of Mach 10, with high manoeuvrability in flight. Sergei Shoigu, the Russian Defence Minister, has said the missile is without a Western equivalent and “could be neither detected nor intercepted”.

The weapon had caused concern among some Western defence experts, who believed NATO’s lack of a sufficient intercept system rendered the military alliance vulnerable.

That alarm now appeared to be ill-founded, Air Marshal Greg Bagwell, a retired RAF commander, said. “If the numbers are correct, then it’s a triumph of air defence over some of the systems that should be able to saturate and penetrate Ukraine’s network,” he said. “We’ve got a system that’s proving itself in the worst-case scenario and the Ukrainians are coping with everything being thrown at them.”

He said Ukraine had done “really well” to use sophisticated weapons systems effectively, proving that high-speed missiles could be intercepted by missiles fired into their flightpath.

“To use a shooting analogy, if the clay pigeon goes faster, you just aim further ahead, it’s just a mathematical problem,” he said. “We’ll be pleased Ukraine continues to dent Russian pride. The question is how long can Russia continue to look like a bunch of idiots? Their allies will start to think they’ve backed the wrong horse.”

THE TIMES