| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Ukraine shoots down six of Putin's 'unstoppable' hypersonic missiles as Russia hits Kyiv with 'exceptionally complex' attack that 'destroyed US Patriot air defence system' |
| 2023-05-17 |
| [Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Russia launched a brutal drone and missile attack on Ukraine's capital early this morning, just hours after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said he would be returning from a European tour with a restocked weapons arsenal. Ukraine claimed its robust air defence system, comprised of Soviet-era and Western-supplied platforms, managed to successfully shoot down 18 of Moscow's missiles, six of which were reportedly hypersonic 'Kinzhal' missiles which Vladimir Putin once boasted were 'unstoppable'. But the Russian Defence Ministry in turn claimed one of its missiles had successfully destroyed a US-designed and supplied Patriot air defence system - a feat amounting to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of state-of-the-art technology that could leave the Ukrainian capital vulnerable to further attacks. The claim is yet to be confirmed, though a grainy security camera video circulating on the Telegram messaging app appears to show the moment a surface-to-air battery explodes after exhausting all of its ammunition amid the attacks. Officials in Kyiv said Moscow's strike - the eighth on the Ukrainian capital this month and certainly the most intense - involved drones, cruise missiles and probably ballistic missiles launched 'from different directions simultaneously'. Ukrainian military general Serhiy Popko said the nighttime onslaught had been 'exceptionally complex and dense'. 'The maximum number of rockets were fired at the city in the shortest period of time... the vast majority of enemy targets in the airspace of Kyiv were detected and destroyed.' The busy Solomyansky district of Kyiv, home to the international airport, was the most heavily damaged, with a fire breaking out in a non-residential building. According to Telegram posts by Mayor Vitali Klitschko, three people were injured in Solomyansky, while missile debris fell on Obolonsky district, a leafy outer suburb. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #5 Pretty fancy shooting for a bunch of Ukrainian noob operators, huh. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2023-05-17 19:55 |
| #3 Russia detains three hypersonic rocket scientists as Kremlin is left reeling over claims 'dagger' missiles were shot down by Ukraine's Patriot defence system |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2023-05-17 09:53 |
| #2 Also after attack wreckage photos show a PAC-3 missile body. Not the one that damaged a Patriot component. Just that Ukrainians are using PAC-3. Also if video is released of impact and after, maybe it will show if a missile went stupid or if an incoming warhead detonated by measuring the crater. |
| Posted by: Enver Slager8035 2023-05-17 00:42 |
| #1 I think one of the SAMs malfunctioned and went on a circular path. The photo at instant of impact shows a rocket motor still burning as it hit the ground. Also after attack wreckage photos show a PAC-3 missile body. |
| Posted by: Enver Slager8035 2023-05-17 00:30 |