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Ukraine's air defenses have intercepted a slew of supposedly unbeatable Russian Kinzhal missiles, Kyiv's military said this week, as Moscow said it had destroyed a U.S.-made Patriot system with the same lauded missile type.
On Wednesday morning, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in an operational update that over the past day, Russia had used six Kinzhal, or "Dagger," hypersonic missiles, which are also known by their NATO reporting name "Killjoy."
It is not clear whether Ukraine is referring to a fresh wave of six Kinzhal strikes, as the military said it had intercepted six of the hypersonic missiles on Tuesday, which Russia's Defense Ministry denied. Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and the General Staff for clarification via email.
Also on Tuesday, Russia's defense ministry said it had used a Kinzhal missile system to carry out a "high-precision strike" on Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, and had struck a U.S.-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile system. On Wednesday, Ukrainian media reported that an Air Force spokesperson dismissed Russia's claim of having destroyed the Patriot as untrue.
A Patriot system was likely damaged in a Russian strike, two U.S. officials later told Reuters on Tuesday. The advanced systems arrived in Ukraine in April, Ukraine said last month.
Ukraine currently has two Patriots, and with these reports, it is not clear how Ukraine's air defense capabilities against Kinzhals would be impacted.
Ukraine previously said had brought down a Kinzhal missile using a Patriot system earlier this month. Lt Gen Mykola Oleschuk, Ukraine's Air Force commander, said Kyiv had successfully "brought down the 'unparalleled' Dagger" on May 4, and a Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson then told Ukrainian media a Patriot system was responsible.
The Pentagon confirmed on May 9 that Ukraine "did down a Russian missile by employing the Patriot missile defense system," later specifying it was a Kinzhal missile. Russian state media then quoted a "high-placed source in Russia's Defense Ministry" on May 11, who told the outlet this was a "fake report" and "wishful thinking."
There had been questions over whether the Patriot could reliably shoot down a hypersonic missile such as a Kinzhal, but thismarked the "first ever shoot-down" of the Kinzhal, the British Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. Russia has since prioritized weakening Ukraine's "improved" air defenses, the government department said on Twitter, but has likely lost "several more" of the Kinzhal missiles.
The "apparently vulnerability" of the Kinzhal "is likely a surprise and an embarrassment for Russia: Russian President Vladimir Putin has touted the system as undefeatable," the British Defense Ministry said.
The Kinzhal has been repeatedly praised by Russia's defense ministry and military leadership. The current head of Russia's operations in Ukraine, General Valery Gerasimov, said in December 2022 that the Kinzhal "proved to be highly effective and invulnerable to air defense capabilities deployed in Ukraine." However, this predates the arrival of Patriot systems.
The Kinzhals have been used in Ukraine since March 18, 2022, according to the state news agency Tass.
The air-launched ballistic missile, which is typically fired from Russian MiG-31K jets, was unveiled as part of a new set of advanced weapons in 2018. It has an estimated reported range of around 1,250 miles, according to Russian state media reports, which say it can accelerate to 10 times the speed of sound. The Kinzhals can be fitted with both nuclear and conventional warheads.
However, Moscow's use of the "hypersonic" label "is somewhat misleading," according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank. "Nearly all ballistic missiles reach hypersonic speeds (i.e. above Mach 5) at some point during their flight," the organization said.
"If Kinzhal genuinely was a hypersonic missile as Putin claims—that is, one capable of carrying out complex maneuvers at more than Mach 5—then it would be extremely difficult to intercept with current anti-missile systems," military expert David Hambling previously told Newsweek. However, available information indicates the Kinzhal is an air-launched ballistic missile with limited course-correction capacity, rather than a truly hypersonic weapon, he added.
Rather than an air-launched missile, the Patriot system, or the Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept on Target, is a surface-to-air guided defense system. It can respond to a variety of air threats, including tactical ballistic missiles, advanced aircraft, cruise missiles and drones, according to manufacturers Raytheon Technologies.
The Patriot system can fire a variety of different missiles, with the earlier PAC-2 interceptors fulfilling different functions to the later PAC-3 family of missiles. They have a speed of around 3,100 miles per hour, according to a 2015 NATO document, adding that the system has a radar range of in excess of 93 miles.
Update 05/17/23 at 8.30 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
About the writer
Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine ... Read more