The Air Force spokesman Yurii Ignat urged Ukrainians not to worry about the fate of the Patriot air defense system, commenting on information about its alleged damage by the Russian Kinzhal missile.
“Donʼt worry about Patriotʼs fate. It is a complex of batteries, a division, a system... Everyone calls it differently and no one can understand, in fact, what it consists of," Ignat noted.
According to him, the division is a command post in which the combat service receives information about the air situation in its area of responsibility, tracks air targets and works on them. Can work in manual, semi-automatic and automatic mode.
"It is the automatic mode of operation of the Patriot that allows it to shoot down air targets without human intervention, as it happened that night," Ignat stated.
In addition, the Patriot has a radar that provides information and is located at a distance from the division.
"And, finally, Patriot has up to eight launchers, each of which has four transport-launch containers, which are also located at a certain distance and provide already combat work — missile launches. This, in fact, is the Patriot. It is impossible to destroy the system with some Kinzhal. Therefore, let everything they tell remain in the archive of their propaganda," the spokesman of the Air Force said.
- On the night of May 16, Russia attacked Ukraine. The Air Defense shot down 6 Kinzhal ballistic missiles, 9 Kalibr cruise missiles and 10 surface-based missiles (S-400 or Iskander).
- After that, CNN, citing American officials, wrote that the Russians during the night attack probably damaged one of the Patriot systems, but did not destroy it. However, the White House has not yet confirmed information about possible damage to the Patriot system in Ukraine. But there they emphasized that if it really happened, the USA would help fix it.