Russia’s military said Tuesday that it hit a US-made Patriot air defense system in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv with a hypersonic missile, which was later confirmed by a US official.
“A high-precision strike by a Kinzhal hypersonic missile system hit a US-made Patriot air defense system,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov.
A US official told CNN that a Patriot system in Kyiv was likely damaged but not destroyed by a Russian missile barrage. The US is assessing the damage to see if the system needs to be taken out of Ukraine for repairs.
The Patriot is one of the US’s most advanced air defense systems. US and Ukrainian officials have previously claimed that the Patriot systems intercepted a Russian hypersonic missile, which Russia’s military has denied.
US officials suggested to CNN that the Patriot might be more vulnerable to Russian attacks than other air defense systems. The report reads: “Unlike some shorter-range air defenses provided to Ukraine that are mobile and harder to target, the large Patriot battery is a larger and more stationary system, making it possible for the Russian forces to zero in on the location over time.”
The US first pledged to arm Ukraine with Patriots in December 2022 and trained Ukrainian soldiers on the system at a base in Oklahoma. The extremely expensive missile systems first began arriving in Ukraine last month.
World War III seems almost inevitable, given that human beings seem to have stopped evolving… This is madness.
Has human nature ever evolved? It seems that humans are pretty much the same as when the first cave men realized he could use a chunk of wood to club someone with it. Technology has evolved in that we have more efficient ways to kill each other but the nature of ‘humankind’ seems to have changed little.
Agree. There is something about evolution in the functioning of human indtitutions that is telling. You will never hear a word “reform” in Western societies. The word is almost exclusively used to describe those imperfect sicieties that need to reform their economies, governance, etc.
It myst be the curse of success. For centuries, technilogical dominance of Western societies translated into long term colonial, or modern IMF based wealth accumulsting advantages.
This is no longer the case. But such traditionally successful societiies tebd to believe that they are inherently better, smarter, ideally organized. And not see any reason for introspection, need for reform. Evolution slows down or is even resisted.
Kondratiev wave 40-60 years, Kondratiev identified three phases in the economic cycle, namely expansion, stagnation and recession.
Expansion is based on technological innovation, which results in long periods of prosperity.
Kondratieff-waves have been linked to hegemonic wars occurring in the final phase, recession.
It seems to me that those waves were longer in the past, and have sped up over time. What has changed immensely is the methodology of ensuring social stability beyond traditional socio-economic and ideological structures. Media. nanipulation has blossomed. One method, while not new, had become more pervasive and pernitious. It is a confidence-game, where new types of media generate very high quality of reporting interspersed with carefully placed disinformation.
If we start relying on high quality work. we are conditioned to reluctantly accept the disinformmation. Such pattern — not too sophisticated — is obvious in Asia Times. in Intercept, Responsible Statecraft.
Without reading a variety of sources and sifting through a lots of garbage, one cannot hope to keep up with the world.
And the underlying truth is that global warming is the most unstoppable invader of all countries. That fact demonstrates the continued insanity of maintaining ‘sacred’ national borders.
Repeat: global warming does not care who wins the Russo-Ukrainian war. That, to me, is by far the most powerful argument to end that war and set a date for erasing the border between Ukraine and Russia. And Russia and Belarus. And Ukraine and Belarus. And….ad infinitum.
We all want peace. The devil is in details. Peace on whose terms?
And whike clumate change indeed is the major threat and mankind does not adapt -/ we are facing extinction.
But the sane question arises again and again and again. On whose terms will borderless world function?
There is a trust deficit in the world. And for as long dominate or be dominated is the prevailing law of globa jungle — things will not change. Global trust must improve or only those that prepare better or are underdeveloped will survive,
Ran into this somewhere on Twitter: “…in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation.” Not that I agree, God forbid. (Sarcasm alert)
The ‘Fourth Turning’ explains the phases as four 20 year cycles and states that the last cycle is the most violent and often involves war and revolution. The book states that the cycles repeat themselves over a roughly 80 year period and uses historical events to validate their thesis.
Human evolution has not stopped, but it is a slow process. We are pretty much the same animals as when our ancestors left Africa about 50,000 years ago. Fifty thousand years is equal to about 2,500 human generations. Humans have been living in cities for about 5,000 years, or 250 generations. And the big changes in human technology have come in the last 500 years or so, which is about 25 generations. I would not expect a large amount of evolution in 25 generations unless the selective pressure were very strong (like, less than half of a generation survives to reproduction). That has happened recently with some epidemics, like the Black Death, but there has not been any selection related to how we behave with our technology. Except that, since we got to the stage of towns and cities, we have gotten into more intense struggles over property and territory. And our technology reflects it: some of the earliest artifacts made with copper are war-clubs. Then came bronze.
So, yes, we are basically humans well-adapted to living with stone age technology, who now have our hands on nuclear weapons. The prospects for our future don’t look very good. It is indeed madness, but don’t blame evolution. We’re just being ourselves in what amounts to a large, crowded city. The modern world.
I love science so kudos for the lecture but I think Donna was just fighting off one of her standard ‘it’s the end of the world’ lines.
“The Patriot is one of the US’s most advanced air defense systems.”
I guess not advance enough against a hypersonic missile. Looks like U.S. needs to hide those defense systems in daycare center or residential areas like Palestinians do with their rockets to create civilian tragedy.
Wow, such a well thought out analysis.
When western news flash tragic Russians destroying residential buildings in Kiev with large explosions, you’ll know I was spot on. Also, need to work on your one line zinger to be more creative and intelligent so you can get more “likes”.
I see a pro-Israeli troll has emerged. He even got people giving him thumbs up.
Did Jake hijack your account?
Now, now, no need to get testy. You know US will do exactly that to protect those Patriot Systems at all cost. We can’t give them billion dollar equipment only to have them destroyed in days.
Ukraine said it shot down every one of those Kinzhal missiles. So this can’t be, right?
It could, the patriot system could be hit by the falling debris – which would explain why the US is assessing the damage to see if it needs to be moved for repairs:
Had it been hit directly then there would have been no need for assessing the damage to that part of the system and no need to do much beyond replacing the destroyed unit.
Somehow the official knows it was “likely damaged” but it wasn’t destroyed. Hmmmm.
Well the whole system could not have been destroyed, so the question is which unit was damaged or destroyed.
The word “likely” was the key to my comment.
Well it could not have been destroyed if referring to the complete system – it could only be partially destroyed or likely damaged – as for the likely part, the ‘stories’ floating about is that they were supposedly launching all or most of their 12 missiles to avoid the damage they would sustain if/when hit – apparently knowing that they were directly targeted – mind you that is just unconfirmed ‘stories’.
If he knows it wasn’t destroyed, he knows that it was damaged. Not “likely” damaged. Just looking for some straight talk that never seems to come until they have no choice.
What he knows is that it was probably damaged, that is unless you think the Ukrainians would already have told him or he was there – straight talk often lands you in trouble – if/when it turns out to be less than 100% true.
Then don’t say anything. If he knows it wasn’t destroyed, he should know whether it was damaged or not.
Ring, ring …
“Hello?”
“Hey, Bob, are you still alive?”
“Yes.”
Question: Is Bob’s leg broken? You should know, right?
Ring, ring….
“Hello?
“Hey, Bob, I understand your house was shelled.”
“Yes”
Question: Is Bob’s house likely damaged? You should know right?
Apparently your point is too logical to understand.
It’s amazing how often people fail to pick up on these key words. When someone says something is “likely” it really means, “I’m guessing”, but that’s what the News business does, it brings on experts who give it their best guess or their best spin depending on the situation.
This guy “likely” didn’t know anything more specific than you or I do about it, he was an “expert” brought on to give the story a plausible pro-American spin.
I happened upon a video of the exchange. Kyev appeared to be throwing everything they had at the incoming missiles.
My back of the napkin match puts the cost of the Patriot missiles at about $16 million for each system that engaged. Add another $ billion to replace the system that may have been lost. Meanwhile, Zelensky is telling the world that “We sure showed them!”
“Kyev appeared to be throwing everything they had at the incoming missiles.”
That’s generally how air defense against multiple incoming attackers works, and has worked since the days of filling the air with flak versus a bunch of propeller-driven bombers.
Due to the usual fog of war (in particular as applied to civilian onlookers/media consumers), I don’t have any opinion on the following questions:
1) How many missiles were in the attacking salvo;
2) What kind of missiles they were;
3) How many of them were intercepted or not intercepted.
If there’s an interesting angle at all, it’s how quick the “no way to beat Russia” line went from “the Russian hypersonic missiles are INVINCIBLE and CAN’T BE INTERCEPTED” to “ah, the Kinzhal’s just cheap trash than nobody expected very much from anyway.”
As you say, the fog of war is high. It’s a little bit early for civilian onlookers/media consumers to be making any claims about the number and type of incoming missiles were intercepted.
That’s mighty expensive flack… The way I heard it, the Ukrainians had to fire off their entire stock of missiles at the launch site so as to avoid them being blown up on the ground which, typical of Ukraine, were located in a heavily populated residential area.
I heard that story too. I regard it with suspicion. But I don’t doubt that the crew threw everything they had … especially if they thought they themselves were the target.
Andrei Martyanov mentioned two things today that make sense to me. 1. Patriot systems consist of several pieces of equipment that are spread out over a sizeable area. I’m not sure an enemy missile would be powerful enough to get them all. 2. It seems far more likely the incoming missile would target the radar or the control components than the launcher component of the system. See a typical system deployment here at timestamp 7:18
https://youtu.be/xaxKbRbn7sM
The radar would be most likely because that’s a detectable signal. The launcher seems second most likely, based on signatures from launches. The command element, least likely unless they were dumb enough to be communicating with the radars/launchers via UHF instead of by fiber optic.
I also assume the radar would be easiest target because of its electronic radiation, followed by the launchers because of the heat signatures. But I’ll bet the control module would be the most valuable target, if they could determine its location.
Radar is always the primary target because when you kill the radar, you kill the entire system. And it’s easy to locate.
Patriot systems should be spread out over a large area but the Ukrainians prefer to hide behind civilians and civilian infrastructure, as Amnesty International just apologized for pointing out – and civillians are in almost as short supply as soldiers these days for the Ukers.
What makes you think it was Ukrainians operating it? I remember relentless noise from Anglo-American propaganda about long training required to operate it.
Besides, knowing this “exceptionalist” mindset of imperial maggots, I doubt Pentagon cowards would allow Ukrainians to operate it.
It looks, they shot their missiles just to get rid of them because they knew they are vulnerable and if all those missiles detonate on the ground, the damage would be much worse.
That is an interesting theory. I kinda suspected Pentagon operators just got scared.
That is the dumbest thing you’ve said ever. You fire one or 2 interceptor missiles at your target. Any target. Maximum 3. Not f()cking 30 of them! If you spam the sky with missiles, (that cost 4.5 million dollar each) your air defense system is complete crap.
I understand that Ukraine shot down three times the number of Russian missiles actually fired.
No, no, don’t spin it. That’s what the Kremlin does.
They’ve been since the beginning of the war claiming to have destroyed more weapons systems than Ukraine received.
Judging by Kremlin’s official figures, they have destroyed more Tanks than Ukraine ever had and more HIMARS than Lockheed Martin ever manufactured.
When are you going to get off of the pot and stop dropping those things called gems of information.
Since Im not a Putin Fluffer like you, the answer is NEVER.
Anything is possible in Ukrainian wonderland. Some time ago Ukrainian scientists proved that Black Sea was dug up by ancient Ukrainians.
Are you implying that the Russians have run out of missiles?
No I am saying that there is a discrepancy between Ikraine claim of missiles intercepted and shot down versus Russia’s clam of the number of missiles actually launched.
Yes but by doing so you are claiming that the Russians shot very few missiles at the Ukrainians –
the Ukrainians claimed that the Russians fired:
6 Kinzhal
9 Kaliber
3 unspecified ballistic missiles
6 Shahed drones
3 additional unspecified drones
27 in total
By the standards of December a small attack – yet large enough to be a challenge, the Ukrainians claimed to have shot them all down – and you now claim that this number is 3 times more than what the Russians actually launched – i.e. the Russians were supposed to have launched only 9 missiles – a puny strike by the standards of last year, and not enough to overwhelm Ukrainian defense in any significant way.
Therefore the question, is you explanation that they did not have more missiles or how do you explain the apparent fact that they opted to not launce more once to take advantage of the limited capacity of the Ukrainians?
I do not know answers — Russians do not advertise. What I gathered through various claims was that Russia focused on Patriots in Kiev area. And some projectikes fired are decoys, countermeasures.
This activity iz separate from the attack on ammunition/ storage of equipment last week, So indeed, the focus on locating and taking Patriots out of commission may have been the sole goal.
Russia did a pretty good job on the depot the other day. Kaboom!
Quite, so even fewer actual missiles!
If so not a very good result even if we suppose they would only have used two Kinzhal – all what they managed to demonstrate was then that the Kinzhal has a much lower chance of penetrating the defense shield than we thought before that show.
So if this was for the reasons you mention then it was a demonstration of how not to do things.
You are making spacious assumptions. Patriots are good only against ballistic missiles. Not a chance downing Kinzhals. Patriots are apparently destroyed. Pictures of supposedly downed Kinzhal are rather childish. Anyone can compare tge supposed remains to real thing. and no special expertise requred to see ithe claim is silly.
And how does it matter to us in the keast whether Rusdia used too little ior too much missiles. This one event does not inform us of either. It certainly does not give us any broader information,
The event has one significance. If it did or did not destroy partiot components. From the. Info coming out it seems a Patriot system was destroyed.
You are misinformed – they are good against any object travelling on a ballistic profile even if only for a fairly limited period – seeing as a Kinzhal has very limited ability to change direction during the last miles of its path it does constitute a target that is potentially possible to hit – the Patriot producer has not claimed 100% success rate even against SCUDS.
Haven’t seen the pictures – but nor the pictures of the several places the Kinzhal have hit – and the Ukrainians have not previously had the ability to hide when they took hits – as they did not just today – but you claim that the Russians fired (at least) two Kinzhal’s and all that they had to show for it was one potentially destroyed launcher a small part of a Patriot system – the pictures of the destroyed truck not fitting with a Patriot one.
Quite the opposite – given the value in overloading a defensive system like the one Ukraine has a much reduced number of missiles fired shows us a lot – at the very least that your Russian friends are being polite an refraining from overloading the Ukrainian defense system 🙂
From the info coming out it seems clear that the Russians are so eager to show this that they use photos of other slightly similar vehicles to claim that a Patriot vehicle was destroyed – but that is naturally only if you believe that a Patriot vehicle is supposed to retain the features that are not destroyed on the after the event pictures.
Precise strikes.
Sure if they got through, but as far as we know max one did – and it is not as if the Ukrainians can deny the ones which do get through – video evidence of basically all/most strikes being available.
So yes indeed if the Russians themselves believed that they could just strike precisely this could explain why, but they did not believe this even back last year when a lot more actually got through.
Unsurprising. Each side is generally going to claim that the other side threw more at it, less successfully, than it successfully threw at the other side.
Precisely!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e0934cf488876feb6040d9a4d434af7485a518e828fc83100afd3b59bde1885a.png
Media here is in a real bind. They behave as a war time media — portraying “our” victories even when losing, and portraying losses as victories. As if it is US war. The reason may be Ukrainian citizens having access to Western media, insuring therefore that bad news is eliminated
Zelenski controls the media in Ukraine (Kiev, anyway). Also political parties, churches, Priests, etc. A real democracy.
Agreed 100%. After that flurry of Patriot missiles, which invoke patriotism by their name, there’s no way those world class missiles missed the Kinzhal missile that was aimed right at their own battery, right? And don’t worry. This also proves that our interceptors would be able to shoot down every nuclear missile the Russians and Chinese will be sending our way once we’re done provoking them. (Sarcasm)
“This also proves that our interceptors would be able to shoot down every nuclear missile the Russians and Chinese will be sending our way once we’re done provoking them. (Sarcasm)”
Ok, Dmitri Medvedev.
Well, first, anything so-called “Ukraine” say is coming directly out of Anglo-American regime. There is no Ukraine as a sovereign state since 2014.
Second, Anglo-American propaganda claimed their “patriots” shot down hypersonic missile DESPITE the fact that Kiev regime MOD claiming otherwise. This was before the videos of frantic spam of the sky over Kiev by this useless system.
It doesn’t look as a good business. Patriot system cost more than$1 billion, Kinzhal missile cost less than $1 million. Actually, Kinzhal missile is 5 times cheaper than a single Patriot missile.
Another hypersonic hype by the Kremlin. Paper rockets. Russia’s foreign military sales are already going down rapidly. They better not try to battle test their indestructible Armada Tanks and their intergalactic Su-57s . Putin needs to pull out of Ukraine in the name of peace and stop killing and embarrassing his Armed Forces.
Well well well, how the turntables. (The Office) Did I tell you how dumb the Russians and their bombs are? …What’s that? I did? Well. According to Senator Cotton, one should never underestimate how dumb they are. Also, according to Garland Nixon, Ukraine doesn’t need to do anything. The Russians bomb their own Kremlin. They bomb their own pipeline. They are defeating themselves all by their own self. (Sarcasm alert)
Only minor damage that can be buffed right out and none of the 90 soldiers needed to operate the Patriots were hurt. I take it back. One of the soldiers was shaving and gave himself a razor burn when he was startled by the noise. But, isn’t it amazing how those dumb Russians defeated HRC in 2016? (Real bad sarcasm alert)
You sound hurt. What happened? Did you want to see more destruction in Kyiv?
Sounds more like he was talking about the bullshit we are fed. And before you say it, the bullshit comes from all sides. But being an American, it probably pisses him off more when we are the ones being bullshitted.
Well said, well said.
And that’s why I asked but you answered on his behalf and cleaned it up pretty good.
It was destroyed. The footage is widely available in Twitter. Also people can be certain of this because it is deep state Natasha that says otherwise.
So widely available in twitter that I can’t find it. Unless you are talking about a big flash of something hitting the ground.
Can you share a link?
That’s the one. U do realize the woman who posted it was later forced to apologize. That type of crackdown isn’t conductive to video showing direct hit vid being later posted for followup by citizen witnesses. With regards to the Twitter video showing multiple launch finally followed by a fireball of the said place and u thinking that’s not proof enough, u r willfully blind
It is not proof of destruction – it is evidence that something hit fairly close to the place from where the other rockets were launched – so very likely one launch vehicle damaged possibly destroyed – that it – so not an entire system nor for sure even one launch platform destroyed – damaged likely.
I don’t know enough about the platform to refute u with regards to total destruction especially since the fireball wasn’t big enough but I m pretty sure the launcher was destroyed. But the bigger point the lauched multiple interceptors in rapid succession and was unable to stop a missile hitting the laucher. Thus making the patriot system not fit for purpose against Russian cutting-edge missiles.
I’m happy that you see my point – the difference between you and me is here restricted to me not being sure about the extend of the damage to the launcher – the evidence available suggests that it was not nothing.
Again you draw conclusions that are too dramatic for my taste – it could demonstrated that they had likely given up on destroying the particular incoming missile and were getting rid of explosives on site, but that in itself is an indication that the Patriot is not expected to be 100% effective – however given the fireball wasn’t big enough, I’m not sure the Kinzhal actually exploded so not unscathed?
In short I think we have a case of the fog of war making it impossible to conclude anything really beyond that Patriots can be hit by Kinzhals (as we believed before this attack) and that Kinzhals can be hit by Patriots which we suspected before this attack – and even these two conclusions are not with great confidence.
NB that Kinzhal (actually also any conventional ballistic missile) can hit a Patriot was a known fact even before this war – the Patriot system has never claimed 100% guaranteed success rate.
Patriots can’t hit Kinzal because it wasn’t built to hit something like a hypersonic. Ukrainians have outright lied on multiple occasion(I don’t blame them and even think it is the right thing to do in an existential war) and now lying about shooting down kinzal. Only way they can shoot down that system is if Russia lied about it’s capabilities. Possible but unlikely.
All or the vast majority of ballistic missiles are hypersonic in the phase where they are supposed to be hit by Patriots, so this is just not correct – the speed in itself is not a factor – lateral movements is.
Again not necessarily true – if Kinzhal does not have the ability to change direction as a response to incoming missiles (and AFAIK it does not) then it can be hit if the path towards the final target does not take it through a lot of turns – at mach 5+ there is not a lot of turning possible within the last few kilometers to the target (but then even a fairly limited deviation will likely avoid destruction).
I don’t know that the Ukrainians have been lying about shooting down a Kinzhal, I only know that it is theoretically very possible – the Kinzhal does not have an active radar and the Russians would not have a radar capable of detecting a Patriot at an interception path during the last bit of the flight – thus it is not possible for the Russians to do much more than preprogram deviations near known Patriot sites – that however should also make interception a lot harder if perhaps not impossible.
I know of that much with regards to hypersonic systems And I was thinking about it’s maneuverability and how that will make it impossible for patriots to hit kinzal. but then again if I just say patriots can’t hit hypersonic then it is logical to assume I m talking about it’s speed. The more specific information with regards to spec and countermeasures r new to me. Thanks for a nice breakdown
All of the regimes involved lie constantly, about their weapons systems’ capabilities and about everything else.
The lack of chest beating in the wake of the dowing of the missiles is telling . Did Kagan call Blinkem or vice versa to congratualte each other ? Did NATO thank Patrioit deliverer ? Did Zelensky show up for a photo op ? Give 1 week and the story would appear in its raw form in NYT or WaPo.
“The lack of chest beating in the wake of the downing of the missiles is telling”
There is no time for chest beating, Russia has been launching Missiles into Ukraine for over a year.
There is only more defending and fighting to do.
Chest beating is par the course . Patriot missile has never been tested ( tested in Israel and Saudi – not a good result ) with this sort of alleged effectivenss.Chest betaing is over due .
I was somewhat surprised to hear that the Patriot was still even really a thing these days. They were somewhat effective against Scuds 30-odd years ago, but only somewhat (I slept through a “somewhat” incident that may have resulted in my later symptoms of sarin exposure). Since then, missiles have only become faster and countermeasures have only improved.
Nothing to offer anymore from the running factory line . America has a lot of junk in its cellar, closet and landfills The route to them is through the glitzy high scraper with concierge services .
There is only a cease fire and talking to do, that is, among civilized people.
Musk has it right: UN supervised elections in the four oblasts, with all parties agreeing to their choices, plus configuring Ukraine to become Europe’s second Austria.
Ukraine is scheduled to hold elections for parliament in October 2023 and for president early in 2024. Zelensky told reporters that no voting will occur while martial law is in place.
Zelensky previously banned 11 political parties. Viktor Medvedchuk who lead the largest opposition party, Platform for Life, was placed under house arrest.
Zelensky has consolidated all TV platforms in Ukraine into one state broadcaster. Reporters are being persecuted in Ukraine for doing their job.
We applaud Ukraine for its democracy.
Which begins to look more-and-more like the Russian democracy.
More like Israel’s with Russian speakers being the Palestinians.
Yep, it Was destroyed but the US military will not tell you for fear of the sharestock price will fall.
According to a report from Stephen Bryen in the Asia Times, the Ukrainian army must abandon Bakhmut this week to prevent getting encircled. That is the opposite of reports on Bakhmut by Ukraine and our media. And where is the Ukrainian spring offensive? Who am I to believe? Perhaps no one?
Encircled??? They are losing some of the last percentages of the city, but in no threat of being encircled.
When one considers that the most dangerous and persistent invader of all countries is atmospheric-global warming, then it becomes clear what mankind must begin to do, namely erase all so-called national boundaries and unite in the global war against climate change caused by human activities.
Elimination of national boundaries and by association, nation states, could allow the human race to refocus its priorities on what actually matters on the blue-green globe floating in space.
Lookie lookie. Ratheon and Lockheed’s stock up today.
“Russia Hits US-Made Patriot Air Defense System in Kyiv A US official acknowledged to CNN that a Patriot system was damaged by a Russian strike”
Cost of each Patriot missile $400 million, cost of the entire system $1 Billion, the look on Zelensky’s face when the system was destroyed; PRICELESS!
No, cost of each missile is between 3 and 6 million (depending on type) They spent about 400 million in Kiev trying to shoot down hypersonic missile.
You are correct thank you. I made a typo when I was typing too quickly. The system cost $1 Billion in total, but each missile cost 4 to 7 $Million. Thank you.
I counted some thirty launches, so if all of them were Patriots that’s about a cool 12 bazillion dollars out the door in about a minute. Contrast that to an alleged 6 incoming Kinzhals, clocking in at about only 6 million all told, plus the cost of the other assorted missiles in the strike package. Assuming that the count of 18 incoming missiles is even somewhat accurate, the count of those intercepted cannot be correct as there is at least one ground strike visible after the Patriots have launched (unless this is a second strike made possible. in part, by the Patriots’ radar lighting themselves up). In any case, this is just one example of how you make an opponent spend himself into bankruptcy.
(Edited by OP to reflect newer information- JB)
https://twitter.com/i/status/1658281863327129601
Who is behind the ‘alleged 18 incoming Kinzhals’ ?
The Ukrainians are only claiming 6:
https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/05/17/frontline-report-russia-launched-concentrated-missile-attack-on-kyiv-in-an-attempt-to-penetrate-through-patriot-air-defense/
My initial source was The Sun, but other sources- as you have kindly pointed out- put the incoming mix differently. I have amended my post to reflect the discrepancy. (Isn’t The Sun the paper that reported the Russians in Bakhmut were ‘armed with shovels’? LOL)
The Sun is AFAIK not a trustworthy source for anything (part of the original tabloid press).
I doubt Russians launched any Kinzhals. I think they are just saying it to give CIA rats in Ukraine a run around. I know for a fact they launched one Kinzhal back at the start of SMO on a hardened underground weapon storage facility near Lvov. Videos show a flying fireball. It is unlike any missile I’ve ever seen. If they used a Kizhal in Kiev, the entire sky would light up.
So given available data, the “patriot” was hacked, operator crapped his Pentagon panties or Russians used 30 decoys before hitting radar with X31 missile.
America has supplied over a hundred billion dollars to Ukraine in order for it to defeat Russia, and now says that if Ukraine uses some of it to assassinate Putin, that’s okay. This is unprecedented.
On May 3rd, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told C-Span in an interview, that there will be no objection by the U.S. Government if Ukraine’s Government attempts to or does assassinate Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin.
America has supplied over a hundred billion dollars to Ukraine in order for it to defeat Russia, and now says that if Ukraine uses some of it to assassinate Putin, that’s okay. This is unprecedented.
On May 3rd, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told C-Span in an interview, that there will be no objection by the U.S. Government if Ukraine’s Government attempts to or does assassinate Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin.
The blaming game and incarceration in Russia’s sonic hype begins:
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2023/05/17/Russia-says-hypersonic-missile-scientists-face-very-serious-treason-accusations