Ukrainian air defenses shot a volley of Russian hypersonic missiles targeting Kyiv this week, putting a serious dent in claims by President Vladimir Putin that the sophisticated, high-speed missile would prove a major asset for Russia in its 15-month-old invasion of its smaller neighbor.
Ukrainian defense officials said an unusually large salvo of 18 Russian missiles, including a half-dozen aero-ballistic hypersonic models, had all been intercepted and destroyed by Kyiv’s missile defense network. Ukraine’s defenses have been bolstered by the arrival of the U.S.-built Patriot air defense batteries supplied by the U.S. and its NATO allies.
The attack on the capital early Tuesday morning was considered one of the biggest since last year’s invasion began. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was concluding a tour of European capitals in search of more military and economic aid to fight off the Russian invasion. Russia is also bracing for a widely expected spring counteroffensive from Ukrainian forces targeting Russian-occupied lands in the south and east, far away from the capital.
“Russian terrorists have no chance of prevailing over Ukraine. Their weapons can and should be countered by Western ones,” Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in a post on Twitter.
In addition to the Kinzhal missiles, which were launched from MiG-31 jet fighters, Russia fired nine Kalibr cruise missiles from ships in the Black Sea and at least three land-based Iskander missiles, Col. Gen. Mykola Oleschuk, Ukraine’s air force commander, said on Telegram.
“All [Russian] missiles were destroyed,” Gen. Oleschuk said.
As is routine in the war, Russia offered its own versions of events. It said the missile barrage successfully took out one of the Patriot air batteries that the U.S., the Netherlands and Germany had given to Ukraine. Two U.S. officials confirmed to The New York Times that a Patriot system had sustained damage from the missile barrage but remained operational.
The level of damage to the anti-aircraft system would determine whether it could be repaired in the field or whether the Patriot would have to be taken to the rear for more extensive work, a Defense Department official told The Washington Times.
Russian defense officials said they struck high-profile Ukrainian targets, such as ammunition storage sites and several pieces of military equipment supplied by the West, in addition to a hit on the Patriot battery by a hypersonic missile.
“The goal of the strike is reached. All assigned objects are hit,” Russian defense officials said on the Telegram social messaging page.
Reports from the ground said Kyiv had sustained no major missile strikes, although debris from one of the intercepted Russian missiles fell onto the city’s zoo. If true, it would be a significant reputational blow to a missile that Mr. Putin has bragged about and even U.S. officials say is on the cutting edge of hypersonic technology.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu denied the Ukrainian claims about the hypersonic missile toll. He told the state-controlled RIA-Novosti news agency late Tuesday, “We have not launched as many Kinzhals as they allegedly shoot down every time with their statements.”
The Dagger
The Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missile, also known as the Dagger, is one of the crown jewels of Russia’s military arsenal. It is a nuclear-capable, hypersonic ballistic missile with an operational range of about 1,200 miles and can fly at 10 times the speed of sound. Russian officials had boasted that it was invulnerable against any weapon produced by the West, and its maneuverability was supposed to help it defeat even the most sophisticated air defense systems.
In 2021, Sergei Chemezov, CEO of the state-owned Rostec defense conglomerate, said there were no effective countermeasures to the Kinzhal missile, which had been used sparingly in the Ukraine fighting.
“They are precise, they hit their targets at a long distance, plus they have a very high speed. It is effectively impossible to intercept such a missile,” Mr. Chemezov told the state-owned Tass news agency.
Mr. Putin told aides when the Kinzhal was first tested in 2018 that its speed and elusiveness would allow it to “overcome all existing and, I think, prospective anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems, delivering nuclear and conventional warheads in a range of over 1,200 miles.”
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs and former member of parliament, said the successful defense shows the capability of Ukrainian soldiers to master the firepower donated by NATO members.
“The world saw that Russian weapons are archaic and aren’t able to get through modern air defense systems,” Mr. Gerashchenko said. “We should also admire, once more, the skill of Ukrainian air defenders.”
The multilayered network of air defense systems that allowed Ukraine to knock down a swarm of deadly missiles was not built overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
“This is a colossal job and I thank each and everyone who is involved in it,” Mr. Zelenskyy said on Telegram. “We should remember that such weapons are worth the effort for Ukraine.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said “Russian barbarians” were responsible for the rocket fragments that fell onto the grounds of the city zoo.
“Fortunately, none of the animals or workers were injured. There was no fire,” Mr. Klitschko said. “Anti-stress measures are now being conducted with the animals.”
Yurii Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s air command, told reporters in Kyiv that all the hypersonic missiles had been tracked and destroyed thanks to the Western-supplied air defense systems. He declined to comment on Russian claims that at least one Patriot battery was struck in the barrage.
“The Kinzhal X-47 missiles, which used to terrorize us, are not so scary anymore,” Mr. Ihnat said. The six Kinzhals used in the attack represent just over a tenth of the total Russian arsenal.
Separately, Ukrainian officials said their forces had made fresh progress in breaking the Russian siege of the embattled eastern town of Bakhmut. They said their fighters had retaken some 7.7 square miles around the city in recent days, The Associated Press reported.
Away from the battlefield, two unlikely diplomatic efforts moved forward.
Following up on a peace proposal offered by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Chinese envoy Li Hui, a former ambassador to Moscow, is preparing to visit Ukraine and Russia. Mr. Li also will visit Poland, France and Germany, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
AP reported that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelenskyy had agreed to separate meetings with a delegation of African leaders to discuss a possible plan to end the war. The African leaders’ peace mission will travel to Moscow and Kyiv in the coming days, the South African leader said, and will include the leaders of Zambia, Senegal, Congo, Uganda and Egypt.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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