Russia’s Defense Ministry said today it had successfully destroyed a Patriot air defense system. They would do so by means of a hypersonic Kinzhal missile strike.
“Of course it could be a lucky shot”
But Wijninga suspects it might be a bluff. ‘It’s really not easy with the resources the Russians have. Of course it could be a lucky shot. But then I’d like to see the proof, and it’s not there yet.”
Kiev, by contrast, says it was able to stop all of last night’s rocket attacks, including six of those Kinzhal missiles. “This is really special,” says Wijninga. The fact that eighteen missiles were shot down does not in itself surprise him. “Ukraine has already demonstrated that it can fire large numbers of missiles and drones from the air.”
“Russian attack strategy difficult to understand”
Even Wijninga finds it difficult to understand the Russian attack strategy. “First we had that air offensive from last September, where they attacked various places in Ukraine, sometimes with a hundred missiles at once. Then there were increasingly long pauses between attacks. Until the end of April, when the number of attacks increased again but with fewer missiles.