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US-supplied Patriot air defense still in service, Ukraine says after Russian claims
Ukraine said on Wednesday that a US-supplied Patriot air defense system continued to operate in Ukraine, after Moscow claimed it had struck the powerful weapon.
“Don’t worry, all is fine with the Patriot,” air force spokesman Yury Ignat told AFP.
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He declined to say if the sophisticated system had been damaged.
“The Patriot is in service,” Ignat added. “All is well.”
Kyiv received the first shipments of the American-made Patriot surface-to-air missile system in April.
CNN reported, citing a US official, that a US-made Patriot air defense system was likely damaged as a result of a Russian missile attack early Tuesday.
The Russian defense ministry said Tuesday that its forces had struck the Patriot system in Kyiv with a Kinzhal hypersonic missile.
Kyiv announced Ukraine’s air defense 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.
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