Not a single Kinzhal missile has reached Ukraine's capital since May 2023 – Air Force

All Russian Kinzhal ballistic missiles that were launched at Ukraine's capital after the country received the Patriot air defense system in May 2023 have been successfully intercepted. In total, the enemy has launched more than 20 Kinzhals at Kyiv.

Colonel Serhii Yaremenko of the Ukrainian Air Force, the commander of the 96th Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

"When we work against ballistic missiles, it does not matter to us whether it is the Kh-47M Kinzhal, the Iskander-M, the 48N[6DM] (a missile using the S-400 system), or the Zircon launched from the Bastion missile system. For us, it is primarily a ballistic target. Later, analysts and experts, based on certain characteristics and the search for debris, identify exactly which aerial target it was. I will say only one thing: all the Kinzhals that were launched at the Ukrainian capital since it was announced that the Patriot air defense system was put on combat duty have been successfully intercepted. Since the beginning of May 2023, not a single ballistic [missile] has reached its target in our country's capital. More than 20 KInzhals were launched at Kyiv and all of them were successfully intercepted," Yaremenko said.

Asked why Russia has now stopped actively shelling Kyiv, Yaremenko noted that this was not because Ukrainian forces were effectively repelling attacks.

"Russia, having the available means, determines the list of objects to strike. Perhaps, during this period, it is interested in other objects. But periodically, of course, important state objects in the Kyiv region are also under the influence of enemy strikes. We are prepared for such challenges every day, every second, at any time of the day," the brigade commander said.

Commenting on the issue of countering Russian guided aerial bombs, Yaremenko said that the most effective fight against them was destroying the carriers of such bombs.

"If there is no carrier, there will be no guided aerial bomb. We have weapons capable of doing this, but they are quite few. We need weapons, we need anti-aircraft guided missiles for this," he said.

On July 1, President Volodymyr Zelensky and a bipartisan delegation from the U.S. House of Representatives discussed the areas of further U.S. aid to Ukraine, including additional air defense systems.