Report: Ukrainian Patriot Battery Received Minimal Damage In Russian Missile Attack
A Patriot surface-to-air missile battery used to fend off a Russian missile attack on Kyiv in the early hours of 16 May, is said to have received minimal damage during the engagement, with the battery still operational.
An American official told CNN on Wednesday that US inspectors had been dispatched to inspect the battery on Tuesday, after its Ukrainian operators reported that it appeared to have been damaged. The Patriot’s radar was found to be undamaged, with other officials saying that they did not believe that the system would need to be removed from the battlefield for repairs.
The publication of the officials’ remarks follow comments earlier on Wednesday by Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Colonel Yurii Ihnat that there was no need to “worry about the fate of the Patriot”. In a television appearance, he said that a single Kinzhal hypersonic missile would not be sufficient to destroy a Patriot battery, owing to the distributed nature of the system’s various components. A single battery is composed of six major components: a radar set, a battery control station, power generator units, a high-frequency antenna mast, missile launchers, and the missiles.
Moscow claimed to have destroyed a Patriot battery during the overnight missile attack. Kyiv, meanwhile, claims to have successfully intercepted six Kinzhals, 9 Kalibr cruise missiles, 3 ballistic missiles of various types, as well as six Shahed suicide drones and 3 reconnaissance drones across Ukrainian airspace in that period. Kyiv’s branch of the State Emergency Service said afterwards that the interceptions over the capital caused several small fires and scattered debris across five of the city’s ten regions.
Ukraine announced that it had received two Patriot batteries from the United States and Germany in late April, with the batteries declared operational shortly afterwards. The batteries appear to have become a priority target for Russian planners, with the 4 May Patriot intercept of a Kinzhal reportedly taking place during a failed Russian attempt to target the system with a hypersonic missile.