Russia appears to have damaged part of a Ukrainian Patriot air-defense system deployed in central Ukraine using ballistic missiles, although Kyiv’s air force insisted that the expensive battery is still operational.
Russia said on Wednesday that it had targeted a Ukrainian Patriot air-defense missile battalion in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, which borders Donetsk, using Iskander-M short-range ballistic missiles.
The attack destroyed an AN/MPQ-65 radar station, a control cabin, two launchers and killed an unspecified number of Ukrainian fighters near the settlement of Pashena Balka, southwest of the city of Dnipro, Moscow said. It shared footage it said showed the strikes, which Newsweek couldn’t independently verify.
A Patriot weapons system being tested in Chania, Greece, on Nov. 8, 2017. Russia said on Wednesday that it had targeted a Ukrainian Patriot air-defense missile battalion in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Sebastian Apel/U.S. Department of Defense, via AP, File
Ukrainian politician and prominent critic of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, Mariana Bezuhla, appeared to confirm the strike, saying in a post to Facebook on Thursday that the strike marked “another damaged ‘Patriot,’ and it’s not the first one.”
A spokesperson for Kyiv’s air force, Colonel Yuriy Ignat, referred to Bezuhla’s statement in a separate post to Facebook on Thursday, describing the politician’s comments as “no better demotivator for a Ukrainian soldier or potential recruit.”
Russia “only damaged a few pieces of equipment, not destroyed them” in Wednesday’s strike, Ignat said, without elaborating. “The same Patriot unit continues to perform tasks in the region.”
The Patriot system was “engaged in an anti-aircraft battle against a group of Russian ballistic missiles” at the time, Ignat said. “They managed to intercept some of them.”
Ukrainian military journalist Andriy Tsaplienko citied an air force source that claimed the Patriot battery had not sustained “critical” damage, and was still in operation.
Schwarzer Tag für die Ukraine.
Offenbar ist es Russland gelungen, den Feuerleitstand und die Radareinheit eines von nur fünf oder sechs Patriot-Flugabwehrsystemen im Land schwer zu beschädigen.
Das System wurde südwestlich von Dnipro angegriffen. Beobachtungsdrohne und… pic.twitter.com/t2b63CBJAE— Julian Röpcke🇺🇦 (@JulianRoepcke) October 9, 2024
Russia has periodically claimed to have destroyed or damaged components belonging to the handful of Patriot systems Ukraine has received from its Western backers.
In July, Russia said it had struck two Patriot launchers with Iskander-M missiles, which Ukraine said were decoys designed to waste Russian missile stocks.
Valuable and relatively rare across Ukraine, the U.S.-made Patriot is considered the gold-standard of air-defense systems. It is a top-priority target for Moscow.
Ukraine is thought to have around five Patriot systems, although the details are murky, and it isn’t clear how many pledged Patriot systems have now arrived in the war-torn country.
Kyiv officials have long pleaded for Ukraine’s allies to beef up the country’s vital air defenses in the face of consistent and destructive Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure. Air defenses have featured high up on aid packages announced in recent months.
