Ukraine shoots down Russian ‘unstoppable’ hypersonic missile
Defence BlogMay 05, 2023
Mykola Oleshchuk, head of Ukraine's air force, claimed on Saturday that Ukraine had successfully downed a Russian hypersonic missile over Kyiv using newly acquired American Patriot missile defense systems.
Russia has launched its hypersonic missile — known as the Kinzhal — sparingly throughout the conflict with Ukraine, often at high-priority targets. It was last used in early March when Russia blamed Ukraine's security services for a terror attack in the Russian region of Bryansk.
Using US weaponry, Ukraine's air force successfully detected, tracked, and destroyed Russia's so-called hypersonic missile. Russia claims these Kinzhal missiles are "unstoppable." Well, it turns out they're not.
Even if Ukraine's claims to have shot down Russia's Kinzhal prove to be accurate, the fact remains that Russia has much more advanced weaponry in its arsenal, including the Iskander-M and S-300 missiles. That has been repeatedly demonstrated throughout this conflict.
There's a 33% chance that Ukraine will join the EU before 2030, according to the Metaculus prediction community.