A policeman looks at a burning building in Podilskyi district after a Russian missile attack on January 2, 2024, in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Viktor Kovalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
Russia launched numerous missiles, including 10 Kinzhals, at Ukraine on Tuesday.Ukraine says it shot down every Kinzhal, nearly doubling its claimed kills of this missile type. Russian leadership previously touted the missile as unbeatable.
Ukraine says its air defenses again prevailed against an air-launched ballistic missile Russian leadership has inaccurately touted as an unstoppable hypersonic weapon, claiming it shot down 10 out of 10 Kinzhal missiles fired during a massive barrage Tuesday.
If Ukraine did manage to shoot down every Kinzhal missile fired during the attacks as the military claims, that would nearly double their tally of claimed kills since the first confirmed intercept last May and further shatter some of the hype around the weapon.
The Ukrainian military announced the intercepts on Tuesday morning on Facebook and Telegram, reporting all 10 of the Kinzhals were shot down. Ukraine’s top general Valery Zaluzhny hailed the country’s defenders while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also praised the country’s Western-provided air defenses.
Tuesday’s attack was the latest major bombardment and saw Russia fire more than 130 missiles and drones at civilian and military targets in an attempt to damage critical infrastructure and industrial facilities.
“Tonight Ukraine faced probably the most massive combined air attack with hypersonic missiles by Russia,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said in a Tuesday post on X.
“Ukrainian Air Defense Forces shot down 10/10 Kinzhals,” the ministry said, adding that “this is what heroism supplied with advanced systems looks like.”
Without advanced Western-provided air-defense capabilities, the Russian attack might have been more devastating. Ukraine said that its defenders shot down all 35 Shahed drones fired and the majority of the cruise and ballistic missiles launched.
In addition to reports most of its missiles never reached their targets, Russia also made a blunder during its Tuesday attack, accidentally bombing a Russian village in the process. Russian state media said there were no casualties, but there was structural damage as a result
Business Insider was unable to independently verify Ukraine’s intercept data, but Ukraine has previously downed a Kinzhal missile, making it possible they’ve done it again since. The Pentagon confirmed in May of last year that a US-made Patriot air defense system intercepted one in a first. And Ukraine says it wasn’t an isolated incident.
On December 31, Ukraine said that it had shot down 15 of these missiles in total using Patriot batteries. If Ukraine’s intercept claims are accurate, the number may now be 25.
That would represent an impressive achievement for Ukraine and serve as a reminder that the Russian missile, which Kremlin leadership has touted as unbeatable, isn’t the wonder weapon they advertise it as.
The KH-47M2 Kinzhal is an advanced air-launched ballistic missile originally announced in 2018 address by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The “Kinzhal,” Russian for “dagger,” had “unique flight characteristics” and high speeds, Putin said, which allowed it to hit its target within minutes of launch.
In his address, the Russian leader said the missile could “overcome all existing” and “prospective anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems.”
Russian officials began boasting about the Kinzhal’s use in Ukraine in August 2022, when Minister of Defense Sergey Shoigu said “no one else has such a missile yet: hypersonic, and with such speed, and with such penetrating capabilities” that “it is impossible neither to detect it nor to intercept it.”
Then, in December of that year, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, added to that glowing praise, saying the Kinzhal was “invulnerable to air defense capabilities deployed in Ukraine.”
This was prior to the arrival of US-made Patriot systems in April 2023. Once deployed, the MIM-104 “Patriot” Air Defense Battery , praised by the Pentagon as “one of the world’s most advanced air defense systems,” quickly put an end to that narrative.
But despite Ukraine’s purported successes countering Russia’s Kinzhals and most other weaponry during Tuesday’s attack, there is growing concern that Russia’s recent strikes, including a massive one last Friday, may be ramping up in both frequency and destructive power.
Ukrainian and Western officials, as well as war monitors and experts, have continued to emphasize that meeting Ukraine’s air defense needs is critical, particularly as Russia returns to launching massive missile barrages against Ukrainian cities.