Ukraine’s “Shooting Down Narrative”: Kiev Regime Claims ‘Proof’ It Can Shoot Down Russian Hypersonic Missiles

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For nearly two years now, the Kiev regime has been making unsubstantiated claims about allegedly “shooting down” Russian hypersonic missiles. Obviously, it was never able to produce any credible evidence that it actually accomplished such a feat.

And yet, here we are. As Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu once said, the Neo-Nazi junta usually “shoots down” three times more missiles than the Russian military actually fires.

And indeed, when one reads the press releases of the Kiev regime’s air defense forces, not a single Russian missile or drone is able to penetrate their airspace. On the other hand, the mainstream media and the Neo-Nazi junta keep complaining about “evil Russians destroying Ukrainian civilian infrastructure“. The question is, who’s not telling the truth in this case?

Speaking of not telling the truth, it should be noted that the Kiev regime and the mainstream propaganda machine already tried pushing the narrative about the failed US-made “Patriot” SAM (surface-to-air missile) systems supposedly “shooting down” the Russian 9-A-7660 “Kinzhal” air-launched hypersonic missile. Namely, on May 4, 2023, air defense units deployed in and around Kiev “shot down” one of the “Kinzhals” allegedly fired by Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS). Various local sources published images supposedly “proving” the incident took place. Initially, the news went largely unreported by non-Ukrainian sources, but on May 6, CNN, the infamous neoliberal mouthpiece and the flagship of the mainstream propaganda machine among news networks, broke the story in the political West.

However, no military analyst worth his salt has ever taken these claims even remotely seriously.

The images presented by the Neo-Nazi junta showed an object that doesn’t remotely resemble the “Kinzhal” missile. While it remains uncertain what sort of weapon the Kiev regime forces shot down, images show what looks like a KAB-1500L or perhaps a BetAB-500 ShP, both of which are laser-guided bombs. It’s also unclear which of “Patriot’s” several versions were used. The Kiev regime is known to have received one of the PAC-2 variants (MiM-104C, D and F), all of which have proven unable to shoot down even the old Iraqi “Scud” ballistic missiles during the First Gulf War in 1991. What’s more, even the newer PAC-3 variant has had an atrocious track record against much less high-tech opponents.

On the other hand, even basic knowledge of how physics works makes the Western and Kiev regime’s claims ridiculous. The images show that the Russian weapon was allegedly struck by the “Patriot’s” kinetic kill vehicle, which in the PAC-2 variant flies at approximately 4000 km per hour. The 9-A-7660 “Kinzhal’s” speed ranges from over 12,000 km per hour to almost 16,000 km per hour. If we were to imagine an interceptor missile flying at 4000 km per hour hitting another missile flying three or four times faster than that, can anyone really believe there would be anything more than a bunch of sparks, let alone a wreckage of any kind? Worse yet, the alleged “Russian ‘Kinzhal’ hypersonic missile” fell to the ground in a relatively good condition and was then even photographed and presented as supposed “evidence”.

Even some Kiev regime media, such as The Kyiv Independent, almost immediately refuted the claims. Only a day after the incident, this outlet published that the Kiev regime forces denied the reports because there were neither MiG-31K/I strike fighters nor 9-A-7660 “Kinzhals” in the air that night. However, this didn’t stop mainstream propaganda outlets from parroting the story. Although it has been debunked repeatedly since then, as previously mentioned, this sort of narrative continues unabated. On January 8, Business Insider published footage once again showing the alleged “hypersonic missile” that was “shot down” by the Neo-Nazi junta forces. This time, they were a bit more careful, claiming that they only found the missile’s warhead, not the entire missile, as they did the last time.

The “Kinzhal” was supposedly “shot down” on January 2, when the VKS launched a massive all-out strike that included hundreds of drones of various types, as well as ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles. To make matters even more laughable, the Kiev regime forces claim to have “shot down” all ten “Kinzhals” that night. I’ve already explained the sheer illogic of these claims. However, in order to further reinforce the debunking of this ludicrous narrative, we can use the previous admissions of the Neo-Nazi junta itself. Namely, according to their own account, even older weapons, such as the P-800 “Oniks” and the Soviet-era Kh-22, both supersonic anti-ship missiles, are impossible to shoot down. This is so obvious that not even the mainstream propaganda machine is bothering to deny it.

It’s important to note that both of these missiles are much less capable than the “Kinzhal”. The Kh-22, although nearly hypersonic at Mach 4.6, is still some 2.5 to 3 times slower. At Mach 2.6, the P-800 is over 5 times slower than the “Kinzhal”. What’s more, both of these missiles are also less maneuverable than the “Kinzhal”. The obvious question arises, if such undeniably capable weapons are impossible to shoot down, how is it possible for the Kiev regime to “shoot down” the orders of magnitude more dangerous “Kinzhal”, much less ten? Considering the fact that the political West and its Neo-Nazi puppets are primarily fighting an infowar, precisely this is the only viable explanation as to why they keep insisting that Russian hypersonic missiles can be “shot down” on a regular basis.

The “Patriot” SAM system has had an atrocious track record against all sorts of targets, be it the Iraqi “Scuds” over 30 years ago or Houthi/Iranian drones nowadays. On the other hand, the political West is decades behind Russia in hypersonic weapons development, meaning that this propaganda narrative accomplishes at least two objectives – promotes US-made air defenses after decades of humiliating failures and “tarnishes” the reputation of Russian hypersonic missiles. The previous is also aimed to help the sales of US systems, just like the hype over the alleged successes of the HIMARS and other US/NATO weapons that have been showered with praise in the last nearly two years. It can only be expected these laughable claims will be recycled from time to time.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.

Featured image is from InfoBrics