(Washington) An ultra-sophisticated Patriot air defense system supplied by the United States to Ukraine was damaged but is operational, a senior American defense official said on Wednesday.
“The Patriot system remains operational,” the defense official told AFP, adding that the assessment of the damage caused by an unidentified projectile that fell nearby was continuing.
On Tuesday, the Russian army claimed to have destroyed a Patriot defense system following a “high precision strike” carried out “by a hypersonic ‘Kinjal’ missile”.
Kyiv had denied these Russian claims, claiming to have intercepted all the missiles launched by Russia on its territory overnight from Monday to Tuesday.
Ukraine said on Wednesday that the advanced anti-aircraft intercept missile system, combined with one of the world’s most capable radars, was working and “in service”.
“Don’t worry, everything is fine with the Patriot,” Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuri Ignat told AFP.
Ukraine announced in mid-April that it had received the first batteries of Patriot missiles, a promise made by Joe Biden to Volodymyr Zelensky last December during a visit by the Ukrainian president to Washington.
The US executive announced the delivery of this advanced surface-to-air missile system to Kyiv at the end of 2022, which had long requested it to counter attacks from Russia.
In early May, Kyiv reported shooting down a Russian Kinjal-type hypersonic missile for the first time using the Patriot system over Kyiv.
This system helps the Ukrainian army against Russian attacks and Kyiv has always assured that it will use these weapons “defensively” and not to strike Russian territory.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had said that his army would find an “antidote” to bypass this advanced system to continue to hit Ukraine.
The Patriot missiles are particularly capable of shooting down cruise missiles, short-range ballistic missiles and aircraft, at an altitude significantly higher than that of the defense systems that had been provided until then.
The United States had previously trained dozens of Ukrainian soldiers in the use and maintenance of these systems.