During the briefing, a Pentagon representative confirmed that the Ukrainian military shot down the Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missile using the MIM-104 Patriot air defense system.< /p>
Recall that on May 5, information appeared that Ukrainian air defense shot down a Kinzhal missile in the sky over Kiev, at the same time the first pictures of the fragments of the missile warhead appeared, which corresponded to the fragments of the Kinzhal that fell in Stavropol in 2022 year due to a technical problem. Later, the information was either denied or confirmed by the military and officials of various levels.
Apparently, the enemy wanted to keep the fact of the downing of the «Dagger» a secret in order to keep the RF Armed Forces in the dark about their new air defense capabilities for as long as possible, however, the Kiev authorities and the journalists who published the photo prevented this.
According to «Military Informant», it is likely that the missile could have been shot down by the Patriot air defense system only with the PAC-3 MSE kinetic interceptor installed, but about the transfer of the complexes to Ukraine modifications have not been officially reported.
