Ukraine said on Tuesday it had shot down six Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missiles in a single night, thwarting a super-weapon Moscow had previously touted as all but unstoppable.
It was the first time Ukraine had claimed to have struck an entire volley of multiple hypersonic missiles, and if confirmed, it would be a demonstration of the effectiveness of newly deployed Western air defences.
Air raid sirens blared across nearly all of Ukraine early on Tuesday and were heard over Kyiv and its region for more than three hours.
“The enemy’s mission is to sow panic and create chaos. However, in the northern operational zone [including Kyiv], everything is under complete control,” said Gen. Serhiy Naev, Commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces.
The six Kinzhals — ballistic missiles that travel at up to 10 times the speed of sound — were among a volley of 18 missiles Russia fired at Ukraine overnight, lighting up Kyiv with flashes and raining debris after they were blasted from the sky.
Kinzhals yet to be widely deployed
Russia’s defence ministry said it had destroyed a U.S.-built Patriot surface-to-air missile defence system with a Kinzhal missile, the Zvezda military news outlet reported.
But the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said all of the Kinzhals had been successfully intercepted.
Zaluzhnyi said his forces had intercepted the six Kinzhals launched from aircraft, as well as nine Kalibr cruise missiles from ships in the Black Sea and three Iskanders fired from land.
Earlier this month, Ukraine claimed to have shot down a single Kinzhal missile over Kyiv for the first time using a newly deployed U.S. Patriot air defence system.
The Kinzhal missile — the name means “dagger” — can carry conventional or nuclear warheads up to 2,000 kilometres. Russia used the weapon in warfare for the first time in Ukraine last year and has only acknowledged firing the missiles on a few occasions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has frequently touted the Kinzhal as proof of world-beating Russian military hardware, capable of taking on NATO.
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City authorities in the Ukrainian capital said three people were wounded by falling debris.
“It was exceptional in its density — the maximum number of attack missiles in the shortest period of time,” said Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s city military administration, on the social media site Telegram.
Zvezda quoted the Russian ministry as saying the attacks had been aimed at Ukrainian fighting units and ammunition storage sites.
With Ukrainian forces preparing to go on the offensive for the first time in six months, Russia is now launching long-range airstrikes at the highest frequency of the war.
It has launched eight drone and missile volleys so far this month. Kyiv says it has been shooting most down.
The past week has seen Ukrainian forces make their biggest gains on the battlefield since last November, recapturing several square kilometres of territory on the northern and southern outskirts of the battlefield city of Bakhmut. Moscow has acknowledged that some of its troops have retreated but denies that its battle lines are crumbling.
European leaders meet in Iceland
Kyiv says those advances are localized and do not yet represent the full force of its upcoming counteroffensive, which is expected to take advantage of hundreds of modern tanks and armoured vehicles sent by the West this year.
A Ukrainian counteroffensive would bring the next major phase of the war, after a huge Russian winter offensive that failed to capture significant new territory despite the bloodiest ground combat in Europe since the Second World War.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has wrapped a whirlwind European tour where he secured more military aid ahead of an expected spring counteroffensive. Britain has promised to help create a Western ‘jets coalition,’ but has ruled out sending its own.
European leaders, meanwhile, were meeting in Iceland on Tuesday for a two-day Council of Europe summit meant to show their support for Ukraine.
According to a draft of the final declaration seen by Reuters, the leaders will approve a new Register of Damages, a mechanism to record and document evidence and claims of damage, loss or injury incurred as a result of the Russian invasion.
European leaders such as Germany’s Olaf Scholz, Britain’s Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron are attending the summit, which Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address via videolink.
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