War in Ukraine: Kyiv announced the downing of Putin’s “invincible” hypersonic missile “Kinjal”

The photographs show a huge warhead. Ukraine on Friday released images of what it said was a Russian hypersonic Kindzhal missile, ten of which it shot down during Tuesday’s massive strikes using a US Patriot anti-aircraft system.

The Department of Emergency Situations of Ukraine published photographs on its Telegram channel showing a crane removing the remains of a rocket from the ground.

“In Kyiv, engineers neutralized the warhead of the enemy airborne hypersonic missile “Kinjal”,” the department reported. AFP was unable to immediately verify Ukraine’s claims.

“Invincible” projectile according to Putin

Ukraine on Tuesday said it had shot down 10 Kinjal missiles fired by Russia during a wave of massive attacks on Ukrainian cities that killed six people.

In May and June 2023, he already claimed to have destroyed other Russian Kinjals thanks to the powerful and expensive Patriot anti-aircraft system supplied by the United States.

Introduced as “invincible” by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018, the projectiles are launched by Russian MiG-31 fighter jets and are designed to travel at more than five times the speed of sound, or above 6,000 km/h.

According to the UK Ministry of Defense, Moscow reserves these warheads for “what it considers to be high-value and well-defended targets.”