The Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stated that previous reports about the alleged "shooting down" of Kh-22 supersonic cruise missiles by Ukraine were false. This was due to communication problems.
Yuriy Ihnat, the spokesman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, wrote about this on Facebook.
"Letʼs say fighters found the wreckage of a Kh-22 in the field (and sometimes itʼs not even a Kh-22, but the wreckage of another missile); they report to the top: we shot down the Kh-22! Everyone wants to be the first to announce it in advance on their resources. Without checking, without agreeing, and so on. The main thing is to be the first," he said.
Because of this, there were reports of allegedly "downed" Kh-22 missiles or even "downed" missiles from S-300 installations flying along a ballistic trajectory.
Ihnat emphasized that the Ukrainian air defense systems S-300, S-200, and S-125 cannot shoot down ballistic missiles. Only the modified S-300B1 can do this with certain missiles that Ukraine does not have.
- On January 14, Russia massively attacked Ukraine with missiles. According to the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the occupiers fired 38 missiles of various types. Air defense forces destroyed 25 of them. One of the Kh-22 cruise missiles hit a high-rise building in Dnipro.