Washington is still assessing to what degree the US-made Patriot surface-to-air missile (SAM) system was damaged following a Russian missile barrage in and around Kiev on Tuesday, an American broadcaster has quoted an unnamed White House source as saying.
This comes after the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced in a statement on Tuesday that a Patriot system had been hit by the Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missile in Kiev.
The Kinzhal was launched as the Russian armed forces conducted “a combined attack with long-range precision-guided air- and sea-based weapons against the AFU [Armed Forces of Ukraine] units, as well as depots of ammunition, weapons and military equipment supplied by Western countries” to Kiev, according to the statement.
Right now, the AFU possess two Patriot SAMs, one delivered by the US and the other - jointly by Germany and the Netherlands.
The American news network reported in this regard that “it is unclear which of those systems was potentially damaged, but taking one out of commission – even for a short period – could affect Ukraine’s ability to defend Kiev amid intensifying Russian missile attacks.”
The Patriots were delivered to the Zelensky administration within the framework of Western countries’ ongoing military aid to Kiev. The US and its allies ramped up their assistance shortly after Russian began its special military operation in Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly warned that the West’s military supplies to Kiev add to prolonging the Ukraine conflict and make the US a direct party to the standoff.