Ukraine leaves Putin red-faced as it shoots down ‘unstoppable’ Russian missile
Vladimir Putin was left red-faced by Ukraine once again after trying to destroy an American-made Patriot defence system with a missile he once claimed was “unstoppable”.
Two of the air defence systems arrived in Ukraine just a few weeks ago, and one in Kyiv was targeted by Russian troops.
But Ukraine shot down Russia’s hypersonic missile using the air defence system without a hitch.
US officials said they believe Russians may have picked up on the signals emitted from the Patriot system, which allowed them to target it.
The Patriot system’s counterattack marks the first known successful use of the advanced air defence system only weeks after it arrived in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has previously said that the Patriots would “definitely” be a legitimate target for Russian forces.
But the Russian missile the Ukrainians shot down, a Kinzhal, was one Vladimir Putin previously bragged about being unstoppable.
Back in 2018, he said the Kinzhal had the ability to travel 10 times the speed of sound and was able to maneuver throughout its entire flight path.
Now, after Ukraine’s first use of the Patriot, Tom Karako, director of the missile defence project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Insider that downing the Kinzhal was “impressive” and a “big deal”.
He added that “nothing is unstoppable,” and said “maybe everybody can take a lesson away from this.”
“There’s probably a whole lot of claims about unstoppability and exotic kind of stuff, but it turns out American hardware, including American air and missile defence hardware, is pretty good,” Karako said.
When Washington first shared it would send Patriot missile systems into Ukraine, the timeline for delivery was months due to the complexity of the system and the need to train dozens of Ukrainian troops on how to operate the battery.
But the Ukrainians were already well versed in the use of air defemce systems, allowing the US to crush the standard training program of approximately one year into several months.
