“Ukraine claims to shoot down 6 Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missiles in one night”

KIEV – Ukraine said it had shot down six Kinzhal hypersonic missile Russia in one night, at the same time refuting the previous claim that Moscow mentioned the superweapon could not be stopped.

This is the first time Ukraine has claimed to have shot down an entire hypersonic missile suite, and if confirmed would be a demonstration of the effectiveness of newly deployed Western air defenses.

Air raid sirens wailed across much of Ukraine early on Tuesday and were heard in Kiev and its territory for more than three hours.

“The enemy’s mission is to spread panic and create chaos. However, in the northern operational zone (including Kiev), everything is under full control,” General Serhiy Naev, Commander of the Combined Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was quoted as saying. ReutersTuesday (16/5/2023).

The Russian defense ministry said it destroyed the US-made Patriot surface-to-air missile defense system with a Kinzhal missile, military news agency Zvezda reported.

However, the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said that all of them were intercepted.

Zaluzhnyi said its forces had intercepted six aircraft-launched Kinzhals, as well as nine Kalibr cruise missiles from ships in the Black Sea and three land-fired Iskanders.

Six Kinzhals, ballistic missiles traveling at up to 10 times the speed of sound, were among 18 missiles Russia fired at Ukraine overnight, lighting up Kiev with flashes and showering debris after they were blasted from the sky.